press releases

Law360 Names O’Melveny’s Project Finance Group a Practice Group of the Year

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Los Angeles—February 9, 2017—Law360 named O’Melveny’s Project Finance Group a Practice Group of the Year, highlighting the firm’s more than 130 years of experience building “support for complex and politically-sensitive projects ranging from California’s high speed rail system to a significant redevelopment of part of the Port of San Diego by engaging with stakeholders and pushing for common ground agreements.”

“It is critical early on in the process to talk to elected officials, stakeholders, community groups and to listen. You don’t try to go and tell them what to do, you listen to what their goals are and you make sure that your project incorporates elements the local community wants and needs,” said Gregory Thorpe, chair of O’Melveny’s project development and real estate practice, in the article. “You build a good interactive relationship with the community at the beginning. It’s not going to eliminate all opposition, but you are going to get a lot more people to support you than if you try and ramrod it through.”

The article touched on several deals the group handled in 2016 spanning industries including aviation, green energy, and major infrastructure. O’Melveny represented the Protea Waterfront Development LLC in its more than US$1 billion redevelopment bid of the Port of San Diego, negotiated sensitive right-of-way issues for the California high-speed rail project on behalf of the California High Speed Rail Authority, and represented financial firms in the acquisition agreement for a wind power project in Texas.

“Whether it is the aviation space, the port space, the surface transportation space, the rail space, we know those enterprises because we have worked around them and done work in them for years, [we know] what it takes to be successful in developing and running those enterprises,” partner Eric Richards said in the article. “Each transaction tends to have its own constraints and own requirements to it. It’s our ability to take a broad set of legal disciplines to dissect all of that.”