Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP is an international law firm headquartered in Washington, D.C. The firm was founded in Dallas, Texas, in 1945 by Robert Strauss and Gump’s. With more than 800 attorneys and advisers in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, the firm has offices in Dallas, Washington, D.C., Austin, San Antonio, Houston, New York, Moscow, Philadelphia, London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Beijing, Abu Dhabi and Geneva. Most recently, the firm opened up in Hong Kong.

PRO BONO

Akin Gump’s commitment to serving clients in need irrespective of ability to pay is unequivocal, from asylum applicants fleeing persecution to U.S. servicemen and –women, from the indigent in our nation’s largest cities to disadvantaged schoolchildren working to better themselves.

Coast to coast and overseas, our lawyers defend human rights by representing asylum seekers, victims of trafficking and the nongovernmental organizations that assist them. Our transactional lawyers structure sophisticated deals for a wide range of pro bono clients, from sovereign governments in the developing world to charter schools in struggling urban neighborhoods. The list goes on and includes significant public interest litigation, legislative counseling, poverty law and transactions, both large and small, in every one of Akin Gump’s offices.

Akin Gump is a charter signatory to the Pro Bono Institute’s Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge, committing us to devote at least 60 pro bono hours per lawyer per year. In recent years, Akin Gump attorneys devoted, on average, more than 80 hours to pro bono clients per year, and more than 70 percent of our attorneys worked on pro bono matters. Our pro bono work is rewarding for our lawyers—particularly for newer attorneys who have the opportunity to cut their teeth on matters of real substance—and, more importantly, for our clients. The firm has been honored to receive substantial recognition for its work from legal media and nonprofit organizations.

We recognize that pro bono service is a matter of personal choice, and we are proud that so many of the firm’s lawyers have consistently demonstrated that they share our institutional commitment.

SUSTAINABILITY

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP is keenly aware of the impact of our everyday office operations on the environment. Our Corporate Social Responsibility includes environmental leadership in business as well as in the communities we serve.

As a participant in the ABA-EPA Law Office Climate Challenge, we have developed a firm-wide approach to eliminate waste through the implementation of improved energy management practices, reduced consumption and collaboration with our employees across offices to be better stewards of the environment.

Our participation in the Law Office Climate Challenge, as well as our dedication to addressing the legal challenges that affect our clients through our Sustainable Development practice (http://www.akingump.com/en/experience/practices/environment-and-natural-resources/sustainability.html) and our Renewable Energy practice (http://www.akingump.com/en/experience/industries/renewable-energy/index.html), reflects the firm’s determination to develop and implement sustainable practices to better the world we live in. We have taken measurable steps to improve our impact on the environment, with 62 percent of our offices LEED certified, a commitment to purchasing renewable energy credits to offset electricity used for business operations, and an annual greenhouse gas reduction of two metric tons per year through our recycling program.

RENEWABLE ENERGY

As renewable energy becomes a more prominent part of the global energy mix, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP’s renewable energy practice combines legal skills developed across a broad array of traditional energy projects with attorneys who are pioneers in the renewable energy sectors to provide our clients with exemplary market knowledge and transactional services.

Akin Gump is one of the world’s leading law firms in the development and financing of renewable energy projects and the purchase and sale of renewable energy projects and companies. The lawyers in the practice work with project sponsors and developers, commercial and investment banks and other financial institutions, investors, manufacturers, technology companies, contractors, tribal governments, sovereign nations and other participants in the sector. Our depth in the renewable energy sector includes projects in wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, landfill gas, biomass and biofuel.

Our lawyers counsel our clients with regard to every aspect of the development and financing of a major project, including:

– development, bridge, construction and term debt financing
– equity financing, including tax equity financing
– joint ventures and other development agreements
– tax
– policy and lobbying
– real estate
– federal and state environmental, land use and permitting considerations
– equipment supply and construction services
– power sales
– transmission and interconnection
– operation and maintenance
– federal and state energy regulation
– dispute resolution.

Our renewable energy team—most recently recognized as one of Law360’s 2011 “Practice Groups of the Year”—includes the former president and current board member of the American Wind Energy Association, the former CEO of one of the world’s largest wind energy developers and turbine manufacturers, the former global head of project finance at a major investment bank, the incoming chair of the Project Finance Subcommittee of the International Bar Association, an industry-leading renewable energy tax advisor and two of California’s Top 100 Lawyers, as named by Daily Journal. Akin Gump is consistently honored with recognition by Chambers Global, Chambers Latin America and Chambers USA in the categories of Projects and Renewables & Alternative Energy for our work in the United States and Latin America.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Businesses seeking to succeed in a carbon-constrained world face significant and complex sustainability challenges. Global, national and local actions to address climate change and the economy-wide impact of those actions require precisely the type of multidisciplinary approach that has long been Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP’s trademark.

Akin Gump’s sustainable development practice understands the significant and complex business and economic challenges our clients face, as laws and regulations increasingly emerge to encourage, and sometimes mandate, sustainability. The legal obstacles that confront businesses adapting to these challenges must be overcome on several fronts simultaneously, accounting for shifting political, economic, regulatory and social landscapes. Coordinating these efforts is among the greatest challenges facing our clients. We succeed for our clients by leveraging our breadth of knowledge and insight to create comprehensive solutions to sustainability concerns.

Our multidisciplinary sustainable development practice comprises partners and advisors in our domestic and international policy, investment funds, tax policy, trade, litigation, private equity, global transactions, energy and environmental, and intellectual property practices. The practice operates in the United States and internationally and builds on our significant experience and/or relationships with all three branches of the U.S. government, as well as with multilateral environmental agreements and United Nations institutions, the World Bank and other key international organizations and processes.

We are devoted to helping our clients find cost-effective and often competitively advantageous means for handling sustainability issues. We develop unique legal and strategic advice to help clients navigate federal and state programs, advocate and lobby on behalf of our clients on sustainability issues and help clients manage risk, ensure compliance and capitalize on new business opportunities. We bring to our clients’ issues a pragmatic, business-oriented perspective developed through representing public- and private-sector clients in the United States and abroad and informed by our practitioners’ varied experience in business, government, public interest and politics.

Our Services

– Domestic Policy. Our team tracks law and policy developments, frames issues and advocates on behalf of clients before the Congress, executive agencies and offices, and the states. Our relationships and knowledge of the processes involved in U.S. policymaking are deep, specific and direct, covering the full spectrum of political leadership in the U.S. government on issues such as cap and trade, renewable energy standards, low-carbon fuels, carbon capture and storage, clean technologies, tax policy and other incentive programs.
– International Policy. We track law and policy developments and advocate on behalf of clients before United Nations organizations, multilateral environmental treaty secretariats, the World Bank, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and other international forums.
– International Trade. Our lawyers apply their renowned experience and knowledge with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and related U.S. and multilateral institutions, trade regulations, clean technology transfer and financing mechanisms, including a full range of intellectual property protection and enforcement services.
– Litigation. We provide litigation counsel to clients affected by greenhouse gas and climate change-related lawsuits involving issues such as environmental impact statements, nuisance/torts, permitting, corporate disclosure and administrative rulemaking.
– Energy and Environmental. We provide environmental counseling services, including compliance and mitigation strategies, permitting, carbon emissions trading and offsets, and certification, monitoring and verification of emission reduction strategies.
– Investment Funds and Private Equity. We represent purchasers and originators of project-based greenhouse gas emissions credits, as well as brokers, traders, investment banks, hedge funds, compliance purchasers and others making investments and managing risk related to energy, clean technologies and tradable environmental attributes.
– Global Transactions. We advise clients through the entire project development process, from concept to completion, including creating opportunities to monetize carbon assets and offset carbon footprints. Our professionals possess particular knowledge and experience in the energy and transportation sectors, which have high exposure in a carbon-constrained economy.

Representative Matters

– representing a major power company (in Kivalina v. Exxon Mobil Corp., et al.) sued by the native village of Kivalina in Alaska for allegedly causing property damage from the emission of greenhouse gases
– obtaining funding for clean technology research, development and construction under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and similar governmental initiatives
– representing a carbon offset project developer to improve and enhance the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) by strengthening the administrative procedures governing the CDM Executive Board and other market stakeholders
– building a coalition of U.S.-based clean technology providers to break down tariff and nontariff barriers to trade, including intellectual property right protections, for the development and deployment of technologies in developing companies
– working with alternative energy developers, biofuel manufacturers and other low-carbon fuel vendors with tax policy and incentive programs
– advocating for cap-and-trade solutions to greenhouse gas emissions on behalf of a coalition of business and nongovernmental organizations
– working with a coalition of governments to strengthen environmental and administrative integrity of international and domestic climate change laws, including compliance mechanisms such as monitoring, reporting and verification
– providing litigation and regulatory intelligence on climate change to financial institutions
– working with the oil and gas industry in connection with an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rulemaking and congressional investigation related to carbon capture and storage through underground injection
– defending a big-box retailer in lawsuits challenging development for failure to assess greenhouse gas emissions impacts of project
– reviewing and drafting emission reduction purchase agreements.