Project Development & Finance Forum

[Anonymous User]

Any project development & finance lawyer willing to share their day-to-day please? I couldn’t really find any articles or threads explaining what this practice area entails, or what kind of tasks are given to associates. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[the lsat failure]

Not sure if I can link it, but Chambers Associate has a write-up for PF answering exactly what you're looking for.

[Anonymous User]

I'm a former biglaw project finance associate and now in-house at a big renewables developer. Happy to answer any questions, but "day-to-day" is hard to describe since it varies greatly. If you have more specific questions, I'll do my best to answer. [youtube][/youtube]

[Anonymous User]

I'm a former biglaw project finance associate and now in-house at a big renewables developer. Happy to answer any questions, but "day-to-day" is hard to describe since it varies greatly. If you have more specific questions, I'll do my best to answer. [youtube][/youtube]

OP here. I’d appreciate it if you could please answer the following questions:

(1) What kind of tasks are given to junior associates and how substantive are they, compared to M&A or other corporate work?
(2) I heard there are different types of project finance work - e.g., representing lenders/financial institutions v. sponsors v. developers. How are they different in terms of the roles of a legal advisor as well as the nature of work.
(3) Any respectable law firms in project finance other than Milbank/Latham?
(4) What did you personally like or dislike about the work.
(5) What are some typical exit opps for project finance lawyers?

Thank you.

[Anonymous User]

Anon in-house and former biglaw associate here. I provided some responses below -- hopefully these are helpful.

I'm a former biglaw project finance associate and now in-house at a big renewables developer. Happy to answer any questions, but "day-to-day" is hard to describe since it varies greatly. If you have more specific questions, I'll do my best to answer. [youtube][/youtube]

OP here. I’d appreciate it if you could please answer the following questions:

(1) What kind of tasks are given to junior associates and how substantive are they, compared to M&A or other corporate work? - The work given to a first year versus a third year is vastly different because Project Finance has a steep learning curve and you quickly gain a lot of responsibility. A first year will largely be doing administrative things -- inputting senior comments, corporate deliverables, running checklists, managing ancillary deliverables, etc. A second or third year will likely do much of the above, but also take on some due diligence work (at least the first cut) and also do some drafting/managing of ancillary docs (estoppels, consents, reliance letters, exhibits, schedules, etc.). From what I understand, the tasks are largely in line with M&A/general corporate associates.
(2) I heard there are different types of project finance work - e.g., representing lenders/financial institutions v. sponsors v. developers. How are they different in terms of the roles of a legal advisor as well as the nature of work. - This is true. Some firms (mostly the more prestigious PF firms (i.e., Milbank, Skadden, Latham, etc.) will do a ton of investor/lender work since they command higher rates and just generally have done more investor/lender work. There are also a lot of shops that focus more on the sponsor side (i.e., Sheppard, Orrick, McDermott, etc.). Investor/lender work will come with more diligence and sponsor work, while lighter in diligence, comes with a lot more paper to push since it's sponsor's obligations to meet all the CPs. Advising lenders largely focuses on short term, construction related risk (except for term and backleverage debt), whereas representing investors is more focused on long term, life of the project related risk. Representing sponsors is more about just helping the sponsor to meet all of the hurdles to make projects bankable.
(3) Any respectable law firms in project finance other than Milbank/Latham? - Yes. Milbank, Latham, Skadden and Orrick are the top tier. W&C, Norton Rose, McDermott, Sheppard, A&O (since they just poached Akin's group), Wilson Sonsini, etc. all do a lot of PF work but aren't in the top tier. The Vault PF rankings are actually pretty helpful, at least for PF.
(4) What did you personally like or dislike about the work. - Interesting work since it's always changing and evolving -- for example, battery storage is now picking up steam and getting interesting. While all transactional work is focused on making rich people richer, at least in PF and renewables you're helping to fight climate change.
(5) What are some typical exit opps for project finance lawyers? - Most go in-house to banks (particularly if you work at one of the shops that represents investors and lenders) or sponsors. A lot of people seem to say that exit opps are limited, but I applied to four in-house jobs as a mid-level and got offers from all four, so I don't buy the theory that exit opps are scarce. That said, a lot of this is probably very dependent on which firm you're coming from (for reference, I came from a top PF shop). PF/energy-related in-house gigs pay pretty well compared to some other industries, which is an added benefit. My in-house job is very much 9-5, very competitive pay, great benefits and 1/10 of the stress.

Thank you.