Energy & Natural Resources

Holland & Knight's Renewable Energy Team is a recognized leader in the development, acquisition, financing and operation of renewable energy projects, advising clients across the technological spectrum, including solar, wind, alternative fuels, energy storage, hydroelectric power and geothermal energy.

We provide legal counsel for clients and projects located coast to coast in the United States, as well as around the globe. Our clients include project developers, public utilities, investment and infrastructure funds, component manufacturers, equipment suppliers, tax and private equity investors, financial institutions, public power authorities, project offtakers and industry advocacy groups.

In a rapidly evolving industry, regulatory clarity and advocacy is critical. At the core of Holland & Knight's Renewable Energy Team is a group of legal and policy professionals with decades of experience representing clients before federal and state agencies on energy-related matters. Whether it is qualifying for state and federal incentives, pursuing regulatory approvals or developing and financing a "first-of-its-kind" renewable energy project, clients leverage our knowledge and experience to navigate a complex world.

Our Renewable Energy Team works closely with the firm's related practices to provide clients with multidisciplinary advice on complex energy matters and help them successfully navigate issues associated with capital infusion and financing, project acquisition and sale, technology licensure, tax-related issues, real estate and environmental regulations. 

Read more about our Renewable Energy Team.

As major energy stakeholders – from energy providers, governments and capital sources to major corporates and manufacturers – focus on the transition to electricity and biofuels as energy delivery vehicles and seek to reduce carbon emissions on an ever-increasing scale, Holland & Knight is well positioned to assist clients in successfully navigating this generational transformation in energy. We are at the forefront with our clients advising on potentially game-changing renewable, carbon capture and biofuel transactions.

With more than a century of institutional energy experience across virtually all fuel and generation technologies, Holland & Knight offers one of the most sophisticated, integrated and commercially savvy energy transition teams in the world. We combine our market-leading renewables, oil and gas and federal policy practices to provide our clients with one-stop solutions that few other firms can match, seamlessly and successfully assisting our clients in obtaining U.S. government funding and legislative priorities to support their cutting-edge, low-carbon projects and businesses, while being their firm of choice to structure and solve first-of-a-kind transactions that fuse together conventional and renewable energy concepts in new ways on the vanguard of the energy transition.

Our clients are market makers, and they trust us to help with their largest and most important transactions, from helping establish and obtain financing for their businesses, to developing and implementing structures that both protect and help them achieve their business goals and economics, and navigating the shifting sands of the evolving energy world. Holland & Knight provides superior value and client service through our leading-edge legal and commercial knowledge of the conventional and renewable energy industries, as well as the points where they now interconnect as we move to an emission-constrained world.

Holland & Knight's Environmental Team has in-depth, hands-on knowledge of land use and environmental law. Our multidisciplinary team of lawyers and professionals is a national practice group that stays abreast of, and is often involved in developing, legislation, regulations, guidance and consensus-based industry standards affecting numerous industries. Many of our team members have previous experience working in industry, trade associations, agencies and leadership positions in federal, state and local governments. We draw upon our large-firm resources whenever needed in order to achieve results for clients.

The comprehensive experience of our Environmental Team includes issues such as:

• brownfields redevelopment
• clean air
• climate change
• energy efficiency
• environmental due diligence in energy transactions
• green building
• litigation, including superfund and toxic torts
• natural resources
• solid and hazardous waste
• stormwater
• sustainability issues
• water pollution

Read more about our Environment Team.

Holland & Knight offers market-leading legal counsel to oil and gas clients, across the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors, throughout the U.S. and around the globe. For more than 120 years, our attorneys have counseled clients across the entire value chain – those who explore for, develop, produce, finance, store, market, transport and process oil and gas resources. Holland & Knight is one of only a few large law firms in the U.S. with a dedicated Oil and Gas Practice, and our lawyers cover sophisticated transactions and matters as well as day-to-day operational and commercial issues.

In addition to the full range of services provided by our Oil and Gas Practice, the firm's deep bench of cross-practice attorneys covers all aspects of oil and gas industry transactions, commercial projects, litigation and regulatory matters. Holland & Knight's integrated team provides our clients with a competitive advantage.

Our clients include multinational and independent oil and gas companies, host government oil and gas companies, private equity and commercial lenders, service companies, refineries, petrochemical companies, and multinational drilling contractors and construction companies.

Many of the attorneys on our Oil and Gas Team have prior industry experience, including as in-house counsel, auditors, landmen and bankers. As a result, we not only provide integrated service through the collaboration of attorneys across multiple practice areas, but each of these attorneys also understands the oil and gas industry.

Read more about our Oil and Gas Team.

Holland & Knight's International Energy Practice provides legal and business advice to energy industry clients around the globe, assisting clients in more than 80 countries on six continents. We have counseled a wide range of energy industry clients for more than a century, and our attorneys represent multinational and independent oil and gas companies, state-owned energy companies and sovereign governments, renewable energy companies and many others in the development of energy projects and the negotiation of commercial agreements, as well as the full spectrum of energy transactions. Additionally, our lawyers have a wealth of experience in complex international energy arbitration cases and have used their insight and deep industry knowledge to successfully resolve disputes for clients in arbitral bodies throughout the world.

The firm's International Energy attorneys advise clients with regard to:

• drilling and service agreements, farmouts and joint operating agreements, project and multilateral financing, seismic agreements and offtake arrangements
• global expansion through the identification, negotiation and capture of oil and gas assets and companies
• complex acquisitions, divestments, trades and mergers
• large infrastructure projects, including engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts, oil and gas development projects, pipelines, refineries and liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects
• the negotiation and drafting of host government granting instruments, including production sharing, concession, license, service, joint venture and joint operating agreements
• natural gas and LNG sales, pipeline financing and construction, and other infrastructure, decommissioning and abandonment issues
• the development and preparation of legal and contractual regimes for host governments and national oil companies
• unitizations and boundary disputes
• multilayered international commercial and investment treaty arbitrations involving upstream, midstream and downstream oil and gas issues
• issues involving U.S. sanctions, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), U.S. anti-boycott laws and import-export controls
• global energy and project finance

To the world's energy industry, our international team is a formidable resource for legal and commercial assistance.

Read more about our International Energy Team.

Read more about our extensive energy experience in Latin America.

Holland & Knight's Electricity and Power Team includes former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) attorneys, former counsel to energy companies – including large investor-owned electric utilities – as well as a former member of Congress who served on the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee. We have the knowledge and experience to assist our energy clients in preparing for, and participating in, the rapidly changing power industry.

We work closely with attorneys and policy advisors in our Environment, Natural Resources and Public Policy & Regulation practices to address all of the issues that clients encounter in the production and sale of energy. We have represented energy clients before FERC, the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, state public utility commissions (PUCs), electric regional transmission organizations (RTOs) and independent system operators (ISOs).

Our attorneys have litigated and arbitrated disputes and enforcement matters ranging from allegations of affiliate abuse and market manipulation to market-based rates and the role of wholesale battery energy storage as wholesale power generation. We have obtained FERC approval of wholesale power purchase agreements, and obtained FERC and state utility commission approvals for the sale of wholesale power plants from nuclear generating stations to fossil power plants and portfolios of renewable generation assets. We have represented clients in transmission ratemaking proceedings, including FERC's formula transmission rates, and advised clients concerning participation in wholesale capacity markets and FERC Order No. 1000 projects. We are a market leader in offshore wind power project development, commercial contracting, and siting and selection of transmission to support offshore wind.

Our clients include:

• investor-owned utilities
• regional and independent transmission entities
• power trading and risk management firms
• power marketers
• independent power producers
• public power authorities
• public utility districts
• electricity cooperatives
• renewable/alternative energy development companies, including hydro, wind, solar, waste-to-energy and biomass
• energy metering and technology providers
• power plant engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors
• transmission and distribution (T&D) equipment manufacturers
• money-center banks, investment banks and energy-focused financial institutions (including private equity funds and insurance companies)
• transmission line communications technology developers

Our experienced Electricity and Power Team helps guide these clients through all aspects of national, state and local regulatory matters, legislative and public policy matters, disputes, financing, project development, taxation, environmental matters, mergers and acquisitions, commercial contracts and a wide variety of other transactions.

Read more about our Electricity and Power Team.