Overview
George Humphrey, who is co-chair of Holland & Knight's Energy Transition Group, is a business attorney in the firm's Houston office. He focuses his practice on U.S. and international project development and finance, strategic joint ventures, and mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and has over 20 years of experience in the energy industry. Mr. Humphrey has overseen the development, financing and closing of billions of dollars of energy projects in the U.S. and internationally, including conventional power, wind power, solar power, energy storage, green hydrogen, biofuels, methanol, fertilizer and petrochemical plants, and carbon capture.
Mr. Humphrey's practice encompasses:
- Project development, including the drafting and negotiation of engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts, balance of plant agreements; turbine supply agreements; build-out agreements; energy hedge agreements; coordination agreements; operation and maintenance (O&M) agreements; shared facilities agreements; product sales agreements; feedstock agreements; tolling agreements; secondment agreements; requests for proposals; and purchase and sale agreements
- Project finance, including the drafting and negotiation of loan agreements and documentation such as guarantees and letters of credit, as well as security, equity contribution, intercreditor, pledge, depository, control and subordination agreements; consents and agreements; opinions; lien waivers; and Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) filings
- Advising on, structuring and documenting multiphase, merchant and other energy projects, as well as identifying and minimizing regulatory, transmission and other risks associated with such energy projects
- Helping developers negotiate with their development partners, lenders, investors, tax equity investors, offtakers, energy hedge providers and contractors, as well as drafting structures to help his clients maximize value from their projects
- Corporate finance transactions, including advising large banks and corporations (both as borrowers and lenders) on multimillion-dollar credit facilities ranging from syndicated, multicurrency and multijurisdictional loans to single-lender seller financing, preparing and negotiating the loan documents, and securing collateral often located across the U.S. and the world
- Intercreditor transactions, including advising clients on complex intercreditor issues such as multiple lien priorities, claimholder voting, standstill periods, cure rights, enforcement actions, payment waterfalls, collateral dispositions, casualty events, rights to amend documents, purchase options and other difficult intercreditor issues
- General corporate practice, including mergers, acquisitions and divestitures (g., advising clients on the strategic acquisition of other companies and project rights and on the buyout of a development partner's interest)
- Representation of Fortune 500 companies doing business in Latin America (e.g., Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Uruguay and Venezuela), including the identifying and minimizing of emerging market risks, structuring and documenting of joint ventures and strategic acquisitions, and the selection, coordination and management of foreign counsel
Representative Experience
Credentials
- University of Florida Levin College of Law, J.D.
- University of Florida, B.A., with honors
- Florida
- Texas
- Energy Bar Association
- State Bar of Texas, International Law Section, Chair, 2016-2017
- State Bar of Florida
- Boy Scouts of America, Eagle Scout
- The Legal 500 USA, Energy: Renewable/Alternative Power, 2019-2024
- IFLR1000, Banking & Finance, Energy, Project Development and Project Finance, 2019; Notable Practitioner, Banking and Finance, Energy, Project Development and Project Finance, 2023, 2024
- The Legal 500, U.S.-Mexico Private Practice Powerlist, 2018-2019
- The Legal 500 Latin America, Corporate/M&A; Projects & Energy, 2018
- Expert Guides: Guide to the World's Leading Energy and Natural Resources Lawyers, 2017-2018
- Who's Who Legal, Energy, Project Finance, 2017; Leading Individual, Energy – Renewables, 2021-2024