Overview
Taite R. McDonald is co-chair of the Energy Transition Industry Sector Group and leader of the firm’s the Clean Technology Funding and Finance Team in Holland & Knight's Washington, D.C., office. Ms. McDonald focuses her practice on government clean technology funding and finance loan guarantees and grant programs, with a proven track record of experience on all stages of the process, from initial profile raising and application to execution and ongoing contract management. She is especially well versed in running complex, cross-government matters with intricate legal, policy and financing components.
Ms. McDonald provides counsel to companies of all sizes, from early stage startups to Fortune 100 companies and large utilities. Most notably, Ms. McDonald's team has helped companies win approximately four dozen awards totaling over $4 billion in nondilutive grant funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Ms. McDonald's team has also helped nearly a dozen of the previous noted awards successfully navigate the government grant negotiation process. Successful negotiations currently total nearly $1.5 billion. Additionally, due to her deep programmatic experience spanning over a decade, she has successfully represented nearly a dozen clients in navigating the DOE Loan Program to obtain conditional commitments in excess of $9 billion. Ms. McDonald's experience also includes a number of successful advocacy campaigns to fund, improve and create many of the programs from which she has helped clients successfully obtain funding.
In 2019, Ms. McDonald was selected as a Holland & Knight Rising Star. In 2021, Law360 named Ms. McDonald a Rising Star in its annual publication honoring top lawyers under 40 for her bipartisan work with Congress, agencies and applicants between 2016 and 2020 to unlock the $40 billion of previously stranded capital in the DOE Loan Program. In 2021, Ms. McDonald was also named by Business Insider as a top lawyer advising electric vehicle companies.
Representative Experience
Credentials
- The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law, J.D.
- Gettysburg College, B.A., Political Science and Psychology, cum laude
- District of Columbia
- Maryland
- The Tenfold Forty, Board Co-Founder and Advisor, 2008-2017
- Taste of the South, General Counsel, 2017-Present
- Holland & Knight Rising Star, Class of 2019
- The Legal 500 USA, Energy: Renewable/Alternative Power, 2024