Crowell & Moring hires energy project finance partner

Crowell & Moring LLP has announced the addition of partner Elliot Hinds to the firm's Energy and Corporate groups in the U.S.. Hinds joins the firm from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, where he was a member of that firm's Global Project Finance Group.

"As we continue to grow our Energy practice, a key objective is to expand our finance and transactional bench, especially on the West Coast. Elliot hits to both of these fields and perfectly complements our regulatory capabilities. It allows us to offer end-to-end service in this sector, which is of tremendous value to our clients."

With nearly twenty years of experience, Hinds has developed a wide-ranging practice that encompasses project development and finance, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and debt financing work in the energy space. He has worked on projects to develop, finance, purchase, and sell renewable energy (including wind, geothermal, solar, and biomass), natural gas, cogeneration and coal-fired electric power, liquefied natural gas, and bioethanol facilities.

His client roster includes wind and solar energy project developers. He represents one of the largest developers of wind and solar energy in the U.S., a Bay-area company focused on robotics technology, and manufacturers of wind turbines, automobile lubricants, and other products. While this significant transactional experience has deep roots in the energy space, Hinds has also worked in other capital-intensive industries, including manufacturing and health care.

Hinds said:

"Crowell & Moring's Energy team has seen impressive growth in the past two years, and I am thrilled to join an already-deep bench of attorneys that are solving complex challenges across a wide array of regulatory and transactional matters for a dynamic client base in the energy space. The firm's full range of regulatory, litigation, and transactional capabilities is a tremendous asset to my clients and my practice."

Hinds' arrival continues the recent growth of Crowell & Moring's Energy Group. In March 2014, the firm welcomed a trio of attorneys as partners in California, including: Frank R. Lindh, former general counsel of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC); Nancy Saracino, former vice president, general counsel, and chief administrative officer for the California Independent System Operator Corporation (CAISO); and Baird D. Fogel, who joined the firm's Energy and Corporate groups from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. These additions came on the heels of the nine-member energy team from Dickstein Shapiro led by Eisenstat that joined the firm in July 2013.