King & Spalding fields an experienced projects and energy team made up of industry experts. Practice head John McClenahan is at the forefront of projects and energy developments, leading the group’s involvement in growing areas within the industry, such as green hydrogen projects. The team covers a broad range of sectors on a multi-jurisdictional level; Mark Davies works on off-shore and on-shore wind and solar projects in Japan and Asia more widely; and senior counsel Michael Arruda has been advising international oil and gas companies for over 40 years. The team is involved in innovative transactions within the natural gas space, including blue ammonia projects, and Aaron Lee has played a key role in the consolidation of the group’s mining practice. Daisuke Shimodaira acts as lead associate on a number of the team’s transactions, drawing on his experience in international project finance within the energy sector. Senior associate Jonathan Wang also plays an active role in the group, representing both sponsors and lenders in the offshore oil and gas and power generation industries. Lachlan Clancy left the firm in September 2023.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

‘The team is highly cooperative and very supportive. The entire team is bilingual to help negotiate and draft the contracts in English and Japanese. Their expertise in projects and energy in Japan is highly valued as it helps us to find innovative solutions swiftly. Complete transparency in billing and flexibility in timing.’
‘Mark Davies and Daisuke Shimodaira understand the business values of each business line and hence they provided customized and innovative solutions for various different scenarios at different stages of negotiation.'
‘Very commercially savvy, can see the bigger picture.’
‘John McClenehan is an excellent negotiator, understands key deal drivers and can adapt. Mark Davies is extremely knowledgeable, commercially savvy, has a can-do approach and is also innovative.’
‘The K&S team worked seamlessly across the workstreams, providing high-quality advice. Clear that they are sector experts – they drew on their experience to come up with practical solutions and could anticipate issues before they materialized – this helped make the overall process smoother and more efficient.’
‘Strong technical ability and sector knowledge, coupled with practical and easy to understand advice (written and verbal) that can be actioned. Always contactable with a fast turn-around. Aaron Lee and Jonathan Wang stand out.’
‘K&S has offered excellent service based on the latest practice in each sector. K&S's experience and knowledge of renewable power sector is highly rich, which helps clients to consider them as one of the most appropriate advisers to handle complex projects.’
‘Mark Davis is a great lawyer with amazing skills and experience. He is very keen on our needs and how we approach for projects.’