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Energy · Traditional Energy

Energy law for companies building and transitioning power assets, covering intellectual property, project development, regulatory matters, and transactions, with attorneys who understand the technology behind your generation and grid systems.

The energy sector is changing fast, with traditional generation, storage, and grid technology now competing and combining in new ways. We work with energy companies on the legal questions that ride alongside that shift, from protecting the technology you develop to structuring the projects and deals that bring it online. Our engineering roots help us understand what your systems actually do.

Protecting Energy Technology

Many energy companies live or die on a technical edge in generation, storage, or efficiency. We build patent strategies around your processes and methods, protect proprietary techniques through the right mix of patents and trade secrets, and negotiate technology licenses on both sides of the table. During acquisitions, we run IP due diligence that surfaces real risk, and we handle patent disputes when your position needs defending.

Structuring Energy Projects

Energy projects come with layered legal structures that have to fit together. We advise on project finance arrangements, joint ventures, and partnership terms that align the parties' incentives. We draft and negotiate construction and EPC agreements, offtake and supply contracts, and interconnection and transmission arrangements, keeping the documents consistent so a gap in one agreement does not blow up another down the line.

Regulatory and Transactional Work

Energy operates inside dense federal and state regulation, and the rules differ sharply between conventional and emerging technologies. We help you work through permitting, compliance obligations, and the regulatory approvals tied to your projects. On the deal side, we handle asset purchases, technology transfers, and the contracts that keep operations running, with an eye on how today's terms hold up as the market keeps moving.

Frequently asked questions

Combine patents for novel hardware and control systems with trade secrets for operational know-how and proprietary software, and use strong confidentiality terms with the contractors and partners who see your designs. Grid and generation technology often blends physical equipment with software, so protect both layers. Where an innovation lives in software running behind the meter and is hard for others to inspect, a trade secret may protect it better than a patent.

Expect interconnection agreements, permitting and environmental review, land and easement rights, equipment supply contracts, and financing — each with its own timeline and approvals. Delays in any one, especially interconnection queues, can stall the whole project. Sequencing these so milestones line up, and building flexibility into your contracts for regulatory change, is what keeps a project on schedule and financeable.

Energy is heavily regulated at federal and state levels, covering market participation, rates, reliability standards, and interconnection, and those rules shape what your contracts can require and how you operate. A regulatory change can alter pricing, obligations, or even the viability of an asset. Build change-in-law provisions into key agreements and confirm your operations stay within the approvals and tariffs that apply to you.

Diligence the asset's permits, interconnection rights, offtake contracts, IP and software licenses, environmental liabilities, and the transferability of all of those to a buyer. Many energy contracts and permits don't transfer automatically and need consents. The deal's value depends on those rights surviving the sale, so confirm what carries over before you sign and price the risk of anything that doesn't.

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