Projects and energy: International firms and joint ventures

Dale Caldwell

Partner

Michael Graffagna

Partner

Masahiro Tanabe

Counsel

Richard Chul Kim

Richard Chul Kim is counsel in the Finance Department of Latham & Watkins Gaikokuho Joint Enterprise. He advises clients on project development and finance, and structured finance. Mr. Kim has practiced in Asia since 2008. He regularly works on transactions involving Korean, Japanese, and other international sponsors, lenders, and government agencies in the energy sector on their global financing and development needs. He also advises clients on various aspects of cross-border corporate matters, including mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures. Mr. Kim previously served a secondment with Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI) from 2015 to 2017. Prior to his career in Asia, Mr. Kim worked as an attorney in Los Angeles and was a judicial extern to Judge Stephen V. Wilson in the US District Court for the Central District of California. Mr. Kim is qualified to practice before the California Bar and a registered foreign lawyer in Japan of the Dai-Ni Tokyo Bar Association (California Law).

Etienne Gelencsér

partner

Yuko Inui

Partner

Minako Wakabayashi

Partner

Kristian Bradshaw

Local Partner

Hans Menski

partner

Yusuke Abe

Yusuke Abe specialises in project finance, ECA finance, acquisition finance and other banking transactions, asset finance, real estate finance, derivatives and regulatory matters. Yusuke has worked in London and Hong Kong and is a member of Clifford Chance’s Worldwide Projects Group.

Katsumi Shirai

Partner

Paul Coggins

Paul is a banking and finance lawyer based in Tokyo, focusing on the shipping and offshore sectors. He acts for commercial banks, ECAs and sponsors in the financing of all manner of ships and offshore units using various financing structures, including complex cross-border project and asset-based leasing and debt facilities. Paul also has considerable experience drafting and negotiating commercial shipping agreements, including shipbuilding contracts and charterparties, and advising on the sale and purchase of ships, ship-owning companies and distressed shipping loans, acting for ship owners, charterers and financiers. Before joining the Tokyo office in 2010, Paul spent time in London and Singapore with a well-known international shipping law firm and on secondment to the Asia Shipping Desk of a leading bank in Hong Kong.

George Gibson

George Gibson is a banking, projects and export finance lawyer based in Tokyo. He specialises in the development, financing and acquisition and disposal of infrastructure and energy related projects, especially in the emerging markets. He has broad experience across the power, water, infrastructure, oil & gas, petrochemicals, renewables and nuclear sectors. George was formerly based in Norton Rose Fulbright's London, Bahrain and Milan offices, and first worked in Tokyo in 1997.  

Paul Harrison

Partner

Stephen McWilliams

Stephen McWilliams advises sponsors and lenders on the most complex and innovative project development and finance transactions in Asia. He heads the firm’s Project Development & Finance Practice for Asia. Mr. McWilliams counsels clients on innovative solutions to complex development and financing issues in developing markets across Asia, especially for first-of-their-kind, multi-lender projects. He particularly focuses on Energy & Infrastructure projects in the areas of: Petrochemicals Power Mining Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) Energy Transition Mr. McWilliams brings decades of experience in Asia, helping lenders and sponsors establish markets with large scale precedent-setting deals. He leverages the firm’s global platform to assemble teams with market-leading experience across multiple practices.