Chadbourne Expands Project Finance Practice with the Addition of Two Lateral Partners

NEW YORK, Aug. 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The international law firm of Chadbourne & Parke announced today that project finance lawyers Paul J. Kaufman and Evelyn Lim have joined the firm as partners in the Los Angeles office, bolstering Chadbourne's West Coast project finance capabilities.

Both are veteran renewable energy lawyers.

Mr. Kaufman most recently was executive vice president for transactions of enXco, the North American development arm of Electricite de France. He joined enXco as general counsel in 2008.  Mr. Kaufman has been a well regarded energy lawyer since 1984.  He began as a regulatory lawyer for the Public Power Council, a trade group of 118 public utility districts, municipal utilities and electric cooperatives and then practiced for 11 years as a lawyer with a firm in Oregon, where he acted for one of the two big coalitions of independent power companies active in California.

He appeared in regulatory proceedings for a variety of clients before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and public utility commissions in the western US from Arizona to Alaska.  In 1997, he moved to Enron where he directed government and regulatory affairs in the western US for five years.  After Enron, he became general counsel of what was then PPM Energy, one of the top three US wind companies, headquartered in Portland.  During Mr. Kaufman's tenure, PPM was owned initially by Scottish Power, the Scottish utility, and then by Iberdrola, a Spanish utility, at which time it changed its name to Iberdrola Renewables.  During Mr. Kaufman's tenure as general counsel, the company not only developed wind farms, but also had active gas storage and gas and electricity trading businesses. 

Ms. Lim comes to Chadbourne from Element Power, a global renewable energy company headquartered in Oregon, where she served as senior vice president and general counsel. Before moving to Element, she had been general counsel of First Wind and was previously a partner with McDermott Will & Emery firm in Los Angeles and London. At First Wind, she helped raise more than $2 billion from various sources, including turbine, construction and term lenders, tax equity investors, financial sponsors and other investors.

In her legal career, Ms. Lim has also worked for underwriters in private and public offerings of debt and equity securities, including Rule 144A and Reg. S, high-yield and structured debt offerings, monetizations of energy contracts and other structured products.  She has also spent significant time on non-power infrastructure projects, including a submerged tunnel road project in Greece, the Monterrey-Cadereyta toll road project in Mexico and the Autopista Central toll road project in Chile. 

"We are very fortunate to have two such capable people join us," said Keith Martin, co-head of Chadbourne's project finance practice. "The sort of experience they bring at leading renewable energy developers should make them stand out in the market.  They understand the business at a deeper level than most outside counsel." 

"Both should fit seamlessly into what is already a huge renewable energy practice," added practice co-chair Rohit Chaudhry.  "They will bring the headcount in our project finance group to 80 lawyers.  Roughly 70% of the group's work is in the renewable energy sector.  This work is increasingly outside the United States, particularly in Latin America and Africa."

"The hiring of Mr. Kaufman and Ms. Lim puts us back on the ground in California in project finance.  We expect to grow from there," remarked Robin Ball, Managing Partner of Chadbourne's L.A. office.

"What particularly appealed to us about Paul and Evelyn is they are not just renewable energy lawyers, but they have also done other things: Paul with his work for Enron and on gas storage and electricity and gas trading, and Evelyn with her work on complicated capital markets and structured finance transactions and other types of infrastructure projects," said Chadbourne Managing Partner Andrew Giaccia. 

Mr. Kaufman earned a B.S. in natural resources from Cornell University and a J.D. from Northwestern School of Law.

Ms. Lim received a B.S. in applied economics and business management from Cornell University and a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law.

About Chadbourne & Parke LLP

Chadbourne & Parke LLP, an international law firm headquartered in New York City, provides a full range of legal services, including mergers and acquisitions, securities, project finance, private funds, corporate finance, venture capital and emerging companies, energy/renewable energy, communications and technology, commercial and products liability litigation, arbitration/IDR, securities litigation and regulatory enforcement, special investigations and litigation, intellectual property, antitrust, domestic and international tax, insurance and reinsurance, environmental, real estate, bankruptcy and financial restructuring, executive compensation and employee benefits, employment law, trusts and estates and government contract matters. Major geographical areas of concentration include Russia, Central and Eastern Europe, Turkey, the Middle East and Latin America. The Firm has offices in New York, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Mexico City, São Paulo, London, Moscow, Warsaw, Kyiv, Istanbul, Dubai and Beijing. For additional information, visit www.chadbourne.com.

SOURCE Chadbourne & Parke