North America - United States • Energy
Akin
The projects and energy transition group at Akin handles a range of work in the renewables area, its recent slate including project development, financing, and joint ventures. Pre-NTP funding structures for renewable energy projects and tax credit transferability advice were also areas of recent focus for the department which is co-led by Matt Kapinos inHouston and Ike Emehelu in New York. Washington DC-based Shariff Barakat acts for clients across acquisition, development, and financing of power generation and infrastructure projects, focusing particularly on tax equity financing. Alongside him in Washington DC, Sam Guthrie is also a key partner, while Hayden Harms in Houston is an up-and-coming figure in the market who made partner in January 2024.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
‘Matt Kapinos has been excellent as a resource and a referral hub for other Akin lawyers.’
Key clients
- Energy Harbor Corp.
- Excelsior Energy Capital
- First Ammonia, LLC
- HSBC
- MUFG
- Ørsted
- Rabobank
- ReGen III Corp.
- Rockwood Asset Management
- Santander
- Tenaska
- The Guardian Life Insurance Co.
- Vistra
- Vitol Inc.
Work highlights
- Represented Santander, Rabobank and HSBC as lenders in a $140m revolving credit facility to DSD Renewables to fund the purchase of equipment and pre-construction expenses for energy storage and solar facilities.
- Represented Excelsior Energy Capital in the formation of a joint venture with an approximately $400m equity commitment to acquire construction-ready battery energy storage projects.
- Advising First Ammonia on its development of a commercial-scale green ammonia production facility using renewable solar and wind.
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Akin
Shariff represents clients involved in the acquisition, development and financing of power generation and infrastructure projects, with a particular focus on tax equity financing. His experience spans billions of dollars in closed and funded investments supporting gigawatts of renewable energy, including large and small utility-scale solar and wind projects, large and small residential solar portfolios, community solar projects, C&I solar projects, geothermal projects and biomass projects. More recently, Shariff has also worked on carbon capture, hydrogen and waste-to-product projects currently under development. To learn more about Shariff, please visit his profile here: https://www.akingump.com/en/lawyers-advisors/shariff-n-barakat
Practice head
The lawyer(s) leading their teams.
Ike Emehelu, Matt Kapinos