Energy Group Of The Year: Holland & Knight
Holland & Knight's Energy Practice has been named a Law360 2021 "Energy Practice Group of the Year." Law360’s Practice Groups of the Year series annually honors the law firms "behind litigation wins and major deals that resonated throughout the legal industry,” with "an eye towards landmark matters and general excellence." The team spoke about the major deals they worked on to earn them this honor, including Exelon Corp.'s $810 million sale of hundreds of U.S. solar facility sites, Surge Energy Inc.'s acquisition of significant stake in the Permian Basin for $420 million and Neste OYJ's acquisition of Alterra Energy.
Attorney Timothy Moran, who led the Exelon deal team, told Law360 the transaction initially got underway in early 2020, and therefore one of the first major challenges the deal encountered was the COVID-19 pandemic, which "definitely slowed the original schedule to get it done," he said. But eventually, an auction process got underway "that had a tremendous amount of interest" and resulted in the $810 million deal.
Attorney Hunter White spoke about the Surge deal indicating that the size and scope of the strategic acquisition naturally made the deal more challenging. He also noted that the deal was the first acquisition work the firm had done for Surge. "And so we were getting to know our client as well in connection with this transaction in an acquisition context," he said. "And since then, we've worked with them on a number of transactions and have enjoyed a very good and strong relationship with them."
Attorney Seth Belzley led the team that advised Neste in its deal with Alterra. He said that Neste was an early mover in the renewable space and focuses on new technologies geared toward enabling a more circular economy, wherein products are intended to be reused and repurposed. "That, I think, is a very cool part of working for a company like Neste, and particularly in this acquisition, is you see a company that's out there trying to address a real problem that we have right now with plastics," Mr. Belzley said.