Jonathan Brufal > Gowling WLG > London, England > Lawyer Profile

Regularly collaborating with the Dubai team on international work, Gowling WLG provides comprehensive advisory services in the power sector. The team assists a wide spectrum of energy market participants with various electricity and nuclear power-related transactions, including electricity generation and grid-stability projects, regulatory advice, and nuclear power station decommissioning. Key team members include Gareth Baker, who specialises in M&A and project development; Helen Emmerson, who focuses on energy generation facilities, grid connection requirements, and regulatory advice; John Cooper, a public and regulatory law specialist; Jonathan Brufal, who primarily handles international project development from the London and Dubai offices; UK electricity expert Gus Wood and project finance specialist Nath Curtis. Other key contacts include James Stanier, who focuses on complex commercial and regulatory matters in the electricity sector, and Paul Green, a construction and engineering specialist with a focus on major infrastructure and energy generation projects.

Gowling WLG provides comprehensive advice across a range of renewable energy projects, including the development, financing, and acquisition of battery energy storage systems, as well as M&A and financing for green hydrogen, solar, and wind energy projects. Key members of the team include Gareth Baker, who specialises in renewable energy M&A, private equity, and project development; Gus Wood, recognised for handling some of the UK’s most significant PPAs in the renewables sector; Nath Curtis, an expert in project finance who routinely advises clients on the funding and refinancing of major renewable energy assets; and Paul Green, who handles a range of renewable energy infrastructure projects including onshore and offshore wind, solar, biomass, and energy from waste. Helen Emmerson and Jonathan Brufal are also recommended.

The projects and infrastructure practice at Gowling WLG ‘has an impeccable understanding and experience of challenges faced when doing banking deals in emerging markets‘, and clients praise the team for providing ‘solution-oriented and pragmatic advice‘. The bench of partners includes head of international projects Jonathan Brufal; corporate energy specialist Gareth Baker; project finance experts Andrew Newbery and Imran Mufti; head of natural resources Charles Bond; impact finance lawyer Alasdair McKenzie; and standout international arbitration partner Gordon Bell. McKenzie helped to set up the world’s first climate-focused guarantee company to provide $1bn in climate finance for developing countries.

Gowling WLG‘s established Middle East projects offering covers PPP, conventional, renewable, utilities and social infrastructure builds, with strong expertise in conventional and Islamic project finance. Group head Jonathan Brufal compliments his skilled project finance and development capabilities with the ability to oversee key commercial agreements, including PPAs and EPCs. Co-lead Imran Mufti is chiefly recognised for his proficiency in project finance and acts for international banks on Islamic-compliant structures in the Middle Eastern and African markets. Halima Ansari also comes recommended.