Chris Staples > Linklaters LLP > London, England > Lawyer Profile

Global head of energy and infrastructure Daniel Tyrer heads up the team at Linklaters LLP alongside energy and utilities specialists Chris Staples and Richard Coar. The team is vastly experienced advising its noteworthy client portfolio on the gamut of matters across the sector. Its expertise encompasses waste-to-energy and energy transition projects of significant scale. Further, it advises on mandates involving green hydrogen, battery storage, offshore wind and CCUS, which is a particular focus of Charlotte Morgan‘s. Battery projects have been a particular focus of Francesca Matthews. The team’s projects are frequently multijurisdictional in nature and of value in the billions; Jeremy Gewirtz often handles high-profile work. Maryam Adamji was promoted to partner in May 2022 and has experience advising on complex matters ranging from the development of interconnectors to the development of nuclear plants. Former co-head of the offering John Pickett retired in the same month. Katie Williams left to Ashurst in November 2022.

Linklaters LLP‘s environment team, noted as being ‘one of the firms with the most experience in the climate change sector’, is led by Vanessa Havard-Williams. It has a strong reputation for its capabilities advising international and national corporates, financial institutions, credit agencies, governments and social enterprises on complex and high-value transactional matters, as well as advisory and litigation work across the sector. Managing associate Iyesogie Igiehon stands out for her work advising on environmental and climate-related aspects of significant M&A. Rachel Barrett stands out in the team for her expertise advising on complex ESG matters; she co-leads the firm’s global, focused practice in this area. Chris Staples is noted for his ‘wealth of experience on the voluntary carbon market’ and has a focus on climate change and emissions trading matters in particular. Carbon transaction work is also an area of expertise for ‘excellent’ counsel Kerry Liebenberg.

Linklaters LLP climbs the ranking this year having continued to build out its practice with key hires. Counsel Ildar Bagautdinov joined from Reed Smith LLP in 2022 to add specialist expertise in structured trade and commodities finance. He worked with key partner Toby Grimstone to advise key client Glencore on its principal RCFs, which have a total value in excess of $6.5bn. Jeremy Gewirtz and Chris Staples  are co-heads of the firm’s global commodities group, and they each have extensive expertise in advising corporates, banks, funds and governments on commodities, trade and receivables financings. Gewirtz recently assisted Macquarie Bank Limited with  an SEK1,191,930,824 (approx. £97.6m) inventory monetisation for the Nynäshamn refinery in Sweden, which is owned by Nynas AB. A recent highlight for Staples was his work for Base Carbon Inc. on a structured tri- party carbon finance transaction.