The Legal 500

London: Projects, energy and natural resources

Power (including electricity and renewables)

Within: Leading individuals

Natasha Luther-Jones - DLA Piper

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Yorkshire and the Humber: Finance

Banking and finance

Within: Banking and finance

DLA Piper UK LLP is ‘a top-tier firm’ that is ‘very commercially aware and able to provide advice at a business level and not purely on technical legal points’.  Kirstie Allerton leads the practice and specialises in real estate finance work with notable expertise in the hotel, industrial and student sectors. Clients also praise the ‘incredibly knowledgeable’ Sarah Day and the ‘technically excellent’ Anna Robson, who are experienced in debt finance and asset-based lending; Day recently advised Nisa on its refinancing with Wells Fargo and HSBC, and assisted RBS, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, HSBC and Wells Fargo as funders with the provision of a debt facility to Speedy Hire. Project finance and legal director Laura Gordon worked with energy expert Natasha Luther-Jones to act for Mitsubishi UFG Financial Group on the financing of a windfarm project by Nanclach in Scotland. Aviva, Sun Capital, Henry Boot, Emerald Publishing and Town Centre Securities are also clients.

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Yorkshire and the Humber: Projects, energy and natural resources (including PFI)

Energy

Within: Leading individuals

Natasha Luther-Jones - DLA Piper UK LLP

Within: Energy

Teresa Hitchcock and Natasha Luther-Jones jointly lead DLA Piper UK LLP’s department from Sheffield and Leeds respectively. Hitchcock is noted for her expertise in contaminated land, climate law and regeneration projects, and Luther-Jones is ‘a go-to name in the renewable energy space’; Luther-Jones’ recent work includes advising Nord on the financing of a wind farm project in Sweden, acting for Equitix on four separate acquisitions of solar assets including a portfolio of six solar sites from Anesco and six operating ground mounted solar installations from Primrose Solar, and assisting Falck Renewables with various greenfield wind power developments across Scandinavia. Other mandates included handling the acquisition of a grid connected short term operating response (STOR) development project in Doncaster and advising Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group on the financing of a wind farm in Scotland. Zilkha Biomass Energy, Tata Steel, Alcoa and Ineos are also clients. Andrew Batterton is the key name for energy developments, Ian Doig handles construction work and Stephen Atkinson regularly works on renewables projects.

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Infrastructure

Within: Infrastructure

Key names in DLA Piper UK LLP’s Leeds team includes Robert Smith, who focuses on the transport sector; Allison Page, who specialises in highways and street lighting projects; Natasha Luther-Jones, who leads the firm’s renewable energy group and Andrew Batterton, who heads the development and infrastructure planning teams. Ian Doig in Sheffield and legal director Ben Peecock are the main contacts for construction and engineering matters. The department covers infrastructure comprehensively covering projects, finance, litigation, regulatory advice, restructurings, competition work, planning, construction and environmental issues. Recent highlights include advising Merseytravel on the construction elements of its new depot facilities on the Merseyrail network, assisting Highways England with its procurement of the Lower Thames Crossing Project, and acting for Gazprom Energoholding on the design, construction and commissioning of a power plant and pipeline for the supply of LNG. The team also advised the Department for Transport on the development of the Southern Eastern rail franchise and is acting for Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive on the MetroFutures project including the replacement of existing rolling stock.

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