With their ‘high standard of expertise, commercial sense and legal skills’, Michael Graffagna and Dale Caldwell lead the projects and energy team at Morrison Foerster. Both partners have extensive experience in conventional power projects, including LNG and gas-to-power, as well as in renewable energy, mining and transportation projects. The practice is a one-stop shop for clients in the energy sector across Japan and on an international scale, with Graffagna handling outbound deals and Caldwell working on domestic and inbound transactions. The team also works in tandem with the firm’s wider Asia energy and infrastructure group on outbound energy and infrastructure projects across the Asia-pacific region. The practice sees projects through from structuring, planning and licensing to construction, financing and operation. Limited recourse financing is a particular focus area for the team and Masahiro Shiga and Yukhi Asano bring broad finance-related expertise to the team. The group’s diverse client base reflects its sponsor focus, ranging from financial institutions to developers. The team is also uniquely positioned to advise technology companies and handle tech-driven renewable energy transactions. Jon Ornolfsson left the team in December 2022.
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Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
‘MoFo Tokyo is very strong in all aspects of what we need in terms real estate, renewables and financing work associated with renewables matters. Aside from excellent work, we receive proposals on alternative billing arrangements, trainings, etc.’
‘Dale Caldwell manages the transactions teams very well and stays actively aware of all issues to overcome for our transactions as well as providing high-value advice. Masa Shiga and Yuhki Asano are also very astute in Japanese M&A and Project Financing, respectively, for real estate and renewables projects.’
‘Their team, regardless of who we work with, have the same high standard of expertise, commercial sense and legal skills. They are a go-to firm when we need strong legal counsel for negotiations with tough counterparties.’
‘Mike Graffagna has a great depth of knowledge and experience in a wide variety of oil and gas as well as renewable projects. He knows many projects as well as the counterparties from past involvement, which makes onboarding and progress of transaction highly efficient.’
‘Everyone on the team is very responsive and provides high-quality advice equally. Additionally, when a project requires collaboration with other MoFo offices worldwide, the team organizes those offices and lawyers effectively, creating a seamless communication experience as if they were one team.’
‘Mike Graffagna not only provides high-quality advice but also has a long-standing business relationship with us, which helps him understand our business strategy and needs very well. He offers valuable advice that benefits our business.’
'Mike Graffagna is capable to suggest win-win resolutions for complicated legal issues.'
Key clients
- JERA Co., Inc.
- SoftBank Group Corp. / SB Energy
- Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd.
- Sumitomo Corporation
- PAG Renewables
- First Solar, Inc.
- Enfinity Global Inc.
- EverStream Energy Capital Management
- GSSG Solar
- Blue Planet Systems Corporation
Work highlights
- Represented First Solar in the sale of its 293 MW DC utility-scale solar project development platform in Japan, and its solar operations and maintenance platform in Japan with approximately 665 MW DC under management, to PAG.
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Practice head
The lawyer(s) leading their teams.
Michael Graffagna, Dale Caldwell