Latham & Watkins has hired five partners across Houston and Washington DC, including the head of the global projects group at Baker Botts, as the firm homes in on energy and infrastructure work.
Jason Bennett has joined from Baker Botts in Houston alongside Thomas Holmberg in Washington DC and Matt Fusina in Houston and Washington DC. The firm has also hired Sidley Austin partner Jessica Adkins and Orrick partner Charles Armbrust, both in Houston. All five have joined Latham's project development and finance practice.
Commenting on the hires, Latham pointed to growing demand for advice across the full life cycle of energy and infrastructure projects.
“The opportunity in energy and infrastructure right now is enormous, and so is the complexity," Justin Stolte, global chair of Latham’s energy and infrastructure group, said. "Clients are making major investments across power, AI infrastructure, LNG and other critical sectors, with development, financing and commercial issues intersecting at every stage. Bringing this group to Latham strengthens our ability to help clients navigate that complexity and execute on those investments.”
Bennett has spent the past 28 years at Baker Botts and focuses on developing and structuring investments and joint ventures in the energy sector through project agreements and venturing vehicles, as well as acquisitions and sales of interests in energy projects. He brings extensive experience in LNG, H2 and CCUS projects, and has worked with clients including BP, YPF and Sempra LNG.
Fusina has joined after 15 years at Baker Botts and advises on energy and energy transition infrastructure projects including joint ventures, commodity sales, operational arrangements and derivatives and carbon credit transactions. He previously advised Tellurian on developing the Driftwood LNG liquefaction project and Cheniere Energy on developing the Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi LNG export facilities.
Holmberg was co-chair of Baker Botts' carbon capture and low carbon fuels practices, and focuses on Federal Energy Regulatory Commission contract and tariff matters and US Department of Energy authorisations for natural gas imports and exports under the Natural Gas Act, alongside project structuring and commercial agreements.
Adkins advises on electric power and renewable energy transactions, including power purchase agreements, complex offtake arrangements, commodity hedging and power supply matters for data centres. She joined Sidley in 2019, having been head of the power projects practice at Bracewell.
Armbrust made partner at Orrick at the start of last year and focuses on debt financing for energy and infrastructure projects, with particular experience in utility-scale and distributed solar, wind, fuel cell, biomass and thermal power projects.
The hires take Latham to more than 40 partners in Houston, where in the past few months it has also hired capital markets partner Bill Nelson and securities and M&A litigator Walter Berger from A&O Shearman and Winston & Strawn respectively.
Several Big Law firms have been hiring energy lawyers in Houston to capitalise on a wave of capital flowing into traditional oil and gas, renewables and physical infrastructure.
Earlier this month, Ashurst Perkins Coie opened a Houston office after hiring a pair of energy transactions and real estate partners from Bracewell. Sullivan & Cromwell, Paul Weiss, Dechert and Buchalter have all set up shop in Houston this year.
In August, Gibson Dunn hired Baker Botts energy M&A partner Clay Brett in Houston around the time energy partner Mark Schlackman joined Baker Botts' global projects department from King & Spalding.
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