Skadden was awarded Legal Adviser of the Year in the Renewables sector in North America.

Judges were impressed by unrelenting focus on the renewables sector and its strong relationship with Brookfield one the world’s largest investors in the sector.

Members of the independent judging committee also noted how Skadden navigated a myriad of unique complexities and challenges, demonstrating our resilience and expertise.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has dramatically changed the renewable energy industry. While the IRA provides a great many new opportunities, with that comes new challenges as the industry figures out how to adapt in order to maximize the various tax benefits now available. 

The submission said: “We have advised several clients on significant financings that have implemented innovative transaction structures, often setting a new standard for the ever-evolving project finance sector.

“Several clients have engaged us specifically to advise them on aspects of the IRA generally, which has included preparing whitepapers, memos and summaries of various aspects of the IRA, as well as conducting trainings and responding to specific questions.”

Over the past year, Skadden has advised on the most significant take-private transactions in the US energy sector as utilities have sought to access additional capital to accelerate the shift from fossil-based systems of energy production and consumption to renewable energy sources.

Skadden advised Brookfield Asset Management in its $3.5 billion acquisition of an additional 30% ownership interest in FirstEnergy Transmission – one of the largest private investments in US utility infrastructure in recent years – a deal that will further support FirstEnergy’s sustainability goals and clean energy transition.

Skadden had previously advised Brookfield in its $2.4 billion acquisition of a 19.9% stake in FirstEnergy Transmission – closed May 2022. Taken together, the 2 transactions support the modernization of FirstEnergy’s transmission system, prepare it to integrate more renewables and distributed energy resources, and improve grid reliability.

Skadden also advised Duke Energy on the $2.8 billion sale of Duke Energy Renewables, its unregulated utility-scale commercial renewables business, to Brookfield Renewable, an owner and operator of renewable power and climate transition assets.

Duke Energy Renewables is a scale integrated power producer with one of the largest operating wind portfolios in the US, and a 6.1GW development pipeline. The sale portfolio includes 3.4GW of utility-scale wind, solar and battery storage located across more than 20 states, in addition to new product development and current projects under construction.