Clare Foster

Banking and Head of Clean Energy

Clare is a partner in the banking team (who leads our project finance practice) and is head of Clean Energy at Shepherd and Wedderburn. She is widely recognised and a highly regarded practitioner in the project finance market, with a particular focus on power sector projects (particularly in the renewables arena) and infrastructure projects. Qualified in both Scottish and English jurisdictions she advises clients on projects spanning the energy sector spectrum (including onshore wind, offshore wind, biomass, energy efficiency, tidal and small scale renewables) and infrastructure sector (including health, education, accommodation, transport and waste management). Clare has been involved in some of the highest profile (and in some cases world firsts) finance transactions in these sectors. Clare’s work includes advising UK Green Investment Bank on the development and deployment (both in Scotland and England) of its first product, the Green Loan (with five projects signed to date across the UK), acting for the Renewable Energy Investment Fund in providing project finance debt and equity to MeyGen Limited (the world’s first commercial tidal array project), and advising the senior creditor group on the Scottish aspects of one of the largest and most complex road projects involving bond financing in the UK – The Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route NPD Roads Project. Clients have stated that Clare ‘…impresses with her understanding of the financing of projects’. One source described her as ‘phenomenally good’. Clare regularly acts as lead counsel representing lenders, consortia/sponsors and authorities both north and south of the border and usually leads the multi-disciplinary team required to bring deals swiftly to financial close.

University of Strathclyde (1993 LLB (Hons), 1994 DipLP); College of Law, London (1998).