Vinson & Elkins LLP

Vinson & Elkins LLP

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Adriana Wirtz
Adriana Wirtz
Adriana focuses her practice on tax controversy and litigation. She represents clients at all phases of a tax controversy from audit through litigation, including before the IRS Office of Appeals, US Tax Court, and US district courts of appeal, as well as before state taxing authorities and state courts. Adriana has represented clients in the energy, real estate, life sciences, mining and software industries. She has particular experience in matters involving tax insurance. Adriana’s matters cover a wide variety of tax issues such as transfer pricing, debt-equity classification, partnership allocations, business aircraft related matters, foreign tax credits, charitable contribution deductions, and employment tax issues. She also has significant experience in defending taxpayers against the imposition of civil penalties, including negligence, valuation misstatement, fraud and information return penalties. Prior to joining V&E, Adriana served as an attorney advisor to Judge Carolyn P. Chiechi of the US Tax Court from 2007 to 2009. While attending law school, she completed an externship with the Internal Revenue Service Office of Chief Counsel.
Casey Hopkins
Casey advises and represents clients in a wide variety of matters relating to environmental laws. In transactional contexts, he has structured allocations of liability in mergers and acquisitions, assisted clients in creative approaches to restructuring environmental requirements, and led the conduct of diligence and negotiations on environmental requirements in connection with asset sales and project financings within the United States and internationally. In addition, he has advised clients on environmental issues in connection with securities offerings and private placements, and represented various companies in obtaining environmental approvals required for energy infrastructure projects. Casey has also defended environmental remediation claims, toxic tort lawsuits, civil and criminal cases related to alleged violations of environmental laws, and numerous administrative enforcement investigations and proceedings. Casey also advises companies on federal and state regulation of pipelines, bulk storage terminals and the supply of fuels.
Dylan Ballard
Dylan Ballard
Dylan Ballard is a partner in the Antitrust and Competition Practice Group in Sheppard Mullin’s San Francisco office, where he leads the firm’s San Francisco Recruiting Committee.  He is an Adjunct Professor at UC Hastings College of the Law, where he teaches legal writing and oral advocacy, and is on the Board of Directors of the Western Center on Law & Poverty. Dylan is a trial lawyer who specializes in litigating antitrust and competition cases arising under the federal Sherman and Clayton Acts, as well as state antitrust, consumer protection, and unfair competition statutes.  He has more than a decade of experience successfully resolving every variety of antitrust and competition matter, from government investigations, to criminal prosecutions and government enforcement actions against businesses and individuals, to class actions and other private civil actions.  His practice encompasses matters civil and criminal, state and federal, before both trial and appellate courts, as well as various international arbitration tribunals. He also routinely counsels businesses on antitrust risks and best practices for avoiding them. Dylan has served as counsel in some of the largest and most complex antitrust cases of all time.  He has successfully represented key defendants in major government cartel investigations, federal criminal prosecutions, state Attorney General actions, and multi-district class actions involving dealer management software, canned tuna, DRAM, SRAM, and flash memory chips, automotive parts, LCD panels, cathode ray tubes, lithium ion batteries, and many other industries. He frequently represents companies, as both plaintiffs and defendants, in lawsuits brought by competitors or customers alleging conspiratorial conduct or unlawful monopolization. Dylan also has extensive experience in the area of overlap between antitrust and intellectual property laws, including cutting-edge antitrust and competition issues arising from the use and licensing of standard-essential patents. His work often involves international issues requiring close collaboration with clients and counsel located around the world.
Lauren Collins
Lauren Collins
Lauren Collins focuses on tax matters related to project finance, with an emphasis on renewable energy and infrastructure assets. Lauren has represented clients in the financing, disposition, acquisition, and development of renewable energy and energy transition projects, including solar, wind, energy storage, hydrogen, carbon sequestration, fuel cell, biogas, RNG, and manufacturing facilities, among others. She has considerable experience utilizing a variety of structures to finance these assets and has helped develop some of the most complex and cutting-edge renewable energy financing transactions in the U.S., including numerous first-of-its-kind deals. In the course of her practice, Lauren represents Fortune 50 companies, investors, utilities, sponsors, and developers in the renewable energy space and has advised clients more broadly in connection with various federal and state tax matters. Her experience includes tax equity, tax credit finance and sales, M&A, reorganizations and bankruptcy, project finance, and structured finance. Lauren is recognized globally and nationwide as “Up and Coming” in Projects: Renewables & Alternative Energy by Chambers Global 2023 and Chambers USA 2022.
Michael Joyce
Michael Joyce
Michael P. Joyce’s practice focuses on energy and infrastructure finance. Michael has represented clients in numerous cutting-edge transactions in the energy and infrastructure field, with a particular emphasis on renewable energy sectors such as solar, wind, and storage. He also has considerable experience with geothermal, biomass, coal, gas-fired, and nuclear projects, as well as with joint ventures and the disposition and acquisition of energy and infrastructure assets. Mike is ranked by Chambers Global and Chambers USA in Projects: Renewables and Alternative Energy. Prior to joining the firm, Michael was a partner in the Los Angeles office of an AmLaw 50 Firm.
Mike Scarborough
Mike Scarborough
Mike is a first-chair trial attorney who focuses on antitrust litigation and competition-related government investigations. He has extensive experience handling international cartel investigations and litigation, class actions, high-stakes commercial disputes, consumer protection matters, and litigation and regulatory advocacy at the intersection of antitrust and intellectual property law. He regularly represents multinational businesses in all phases of class action, direct plaintiff and competitor litigation, from pre-complaint investigation through trial and appeal, and frequently guides businesses and individuals through civil and criminal matters involving federal and state enforcement agencies. He has helped clients successfully manage and avoid regulatory inquiries and litigation around the world. Mike’s tireless and determined client advocacy garner him regular client, peer and media recognition, with nods from Competition Law360, Chambers USA, American Lawyer, Benchmark Litigation, Legal 500, Daily Journal, Best Lawyers in America, Lawdragon, Acritas Stars and Super Lawyers. Clients and commentators describe the “very impressive” Mike Scarborough as “an excellent attorney who is detail-oriented, a strong writer and a strategic thinker” and a “fierce advocate with integrity and professionalism” (Chambers USA); “a great negotiator” and “an incredible legal tactician” (Acritas); and “a tough advocate, who is also professional and fair” (Legal 500).
Ron Tenpas
Ron Tenpas
Ron Tenpas is one of the country’s preeminent environmental litigators. A former Assistant Attorney General (AAG) for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, Ron represents clients in civil and criminal investigations related to alleged environmental violations, imports and other matters. He also represents companies and trade associations in commenting on proposed regulations and in litigation challenging new regulatory provisions. In counseling clients, Ron draws upon 12 years of experience in the Justice Department. As AAG, a title he held from 2007 until 2009, he managed a 700-person division that included 400 lawyers. He oversaw civil and criminal litigation arising under more than 150 environmental and natural resources laws. In addition, as AAG Ron defended the government when the government was sued in connection with its own use of natural resources. Ron also advised Cabinet and White House officials on policy and litigation risks associated with the environmental laws. Under Ron’s watch, the Justice Department secured what was at the time the largest criminal penalty under the Clean Air Act. Before he was appointed AAG, Ron served as an Associate Deputy Attorney General, as the U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of Illinois, and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Maryland and the Middle District of Florida. He investigated and tried white-collar matters related to healthcare fraud and public corruption. A Rhodes Scholar and editor-in-chief of the Virginia Law Review, Ron served as a clerk to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist of the U.S. Supreme Court. Ron’s environmental practice has been recognized by Chambers USA. A source quoted by Chambers said Ron has “a unique combination of being a skilled environmental lawyer and being able to clearly communicate to his clients and develop a path forward” (2019).
Sean Moran
Sean Moran
Sean focuses on asset finance, with an emphasis on financing, acquiring, and disposing of renewable energy, zero carbon, and infrastructure assets. Instrumental in creating the structure that has become the standard for renewable energy deals in the United States, Sean has handled many of the country’s largest and most complex renewable energy financing transactions, including numerous first-of-its-kind deals. In the course of his practice, Sean represents Fortune 50 companies, investors, sponsors, and developers. His clients include some of the largest investors in the renewable energy market, collectively investing billions of dollars in renewable energy generation. His projects include wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, and waste-to-energy facilities that generate electric power in all but a couple of states. Recently, he has represented both investors and sponsors in the development of solar and storage facilities, off-shore wind power facilities, and fossil fuel power facilities that sequester carbon. Sean is ranked by Chambers USA as a Band 1 lawyer nationally in Projects: Renewables and Alternative Energy.
Wally Schwartz
Wally Schwartz
Wallace Schwartz is a preeminent real estate attorney with more than 40 years’ experience advising commercial real estate clients. His practice includes commercial real estate development, acquisitions, leasing, partnerships and joint ventures, capital markets and financings, gaming, hospitality, workouts and restructurings, and real estate funds. Wally has advised on projects that have transformed urban landscapes, most notably the one million-square-foot retail development in New York City’s Hudson Yards, where he represented The Related Companies and Oxford Property Group. He has recently represented clients who bought and sold major Manhattan office buildings for purchase prices totaling more than $2 billion. Nationally, Wally is representing The Related Companies in joint venture development projects in Washington, D.C., West Palm Beach, Florida, Los Angeles, and Santa Clara, California. He has also represented an array of other major real estate players nationwide, including Boston Properties, Westbrook Partners, iStar Inc., Brookfield Properties, Taconic Investment Partners, WPT Industrial REIT, Fetner Properties and Rockpoint Group.
William Scherman
William Scherman
Bill Scherman advises companies on litigation, commercial, regulatory and legislative matters relating to the U.S. and international energy markets. He has litigated high-profile energy investigation and enforcement matters before the FERC and in the federal courts and represents large electric utilities before the FERC and state regulators. During the last several years, he has been heavily involved in very high-profile trials before the FERC involving rate, market power and market manipulation issues. He also utilizes his experience in market power issues in advising companies on mergers and acquisitions.
Zachary Terwilliger
Zachary Terwilliger
Zachary (“Zach”) Terwilliger, the former Senate confirmed United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, has extensive experience in all manners of federal investigations and trials. Those frontline skills combine with his mastery of involved management roles overseeing operational programs, setting policy parameters, and managing teams to accomplish strategic objectives. He gained this experience over a decades-long career in public service where he advanced from an office intern to serve as the presidentially appointed and Senate confirmed United States Attorney. He rounds out his Washington experience by having served as Associate Deputy Attorney General and Chief of staff to the Deputy Attorney General, whose office manages the entire Department of Justice and its various agencies, and as counsel to the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In a testament to his professionalism, he was the sole and unanimous recommendation of Virginia’s two Democratic Senators to serve as U.S. Attorney. Following this recommendation, the President’s nomination, and confirmation by the entire U.S. Senate, Zach was sworn in as the then-youngest U.S. Attorney in the country. Zach’s knowledge of how the Justice Department and federal enforcement agencies function in both civil and criminal matters, particularly in regards to discretionary decision making, provides him with unique insights necessary to effectively assist companies and individuals facing federal enforcement matters, including allegations of domestic and international criminal and civil violations. Zach is skilled in navigating internal and government investigations, allegations of bribery under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, complex criminal grand jury investigations, criminal antitrust matters, and Congressional inquiries and select committee investigations, among other complex white collar issues. As a Chambers-ranked attorney, Zach is described by clients as “a go-to person for white-collar matters and complicated government investigations. He is very skilled and intelligent and will control the facts. He is talented, knowledgeable and efficient.” (Chambers USA 2023 – client quote). As U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Zach supervised a team of over 300 lawyers and support staff. He also managed multiple key corporate resolutions, and significantly enhanced the District’s white-collar footprint through collaboration with DOJ’s Fraud Section, as well as with other enforcement entities like the newly created Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery and the Procurement Collusion Strike Force. He is also a veteran litigator with years of investigative and in-court experience in trials, pre-trial proceedings, and appeals.

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