White & Case announced Tuesday the expansion of its energy, infrastructure and construction practices with the lateral hiring of Peter Berg from King & Spalding in Houston.
In just over seven years at K&S, Berg rose from associate to partner, specializing in risk management for owners and developers in global energy construction projects, whether on-shore, off-shore or renewable.
Jason Kerr, head of the Global Project Development and Finance Practice at White & Case said Berg’s practice at W&C will be similar.
“Peter’s significant experience in advising on innovative projects in the global energy and renewables space will add to the firm’s reputation for having a preeminent global project development and finance practice, as we continue to strategically enhance our offerings in the Americas to meet market demand.”
Jay Cuclis, executive partner at W&C’s Houston office and head of the firm’s energy industry group, was similarly ebullient.
“Since the buildout of our U.S. construction practice, the firm has established a leading reputation in the North American market, and Peter’s addition will serve to further enhance our position,” Cuclis said. “The energy transition continues to drive investment in renewable energy projects, as well as in projects like CCUS (carbon capture, utilization and storage) to decrease the impact of continued fossil fuel use.”
Berg earned his J.D. in 2014 from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. But his undergraduate degree was in civil and structural engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder, after which he was licensed as an engineer-in-training and worked at several engineering and construction firms before deciding to go into law.
Now, as a lawyer, he advises clients on first-of-its-kind projects, including those involving long-distance HVDC transmission, green and blue hydrogen and hydrogen derivatives (including ammonia and e-fuels), carbon capture technologies, SMRs, RNG, solar and wind, and other cutting-edge energy transition projects.
“I haven’t really moved completely away from that background,” he told The Texas Lawbook. “I may not be doing, like, the math behind these projects, but I’m hopefully a valuable team member on these project development teams.”
“In a lot of ways that background really helps me with what I’m doing today. I’m working with engineering teams nearly everyday to try to help them build their projects, but from a slightly different perspective: managing the risks that they take on with these billion-dollar projects.”
Berg says he likes projects, especially big projects; and especially big projects that involve novel technologies and techniques.
“We need a lot more new energy and renewables-type infrastructure here in the U.S. and everywhere, really. And one reason I came to White & Case was to help them attract clients with those finance and construction capabilities to build all these construction projects that we need,” Berg said. “We have a lot of momentum in this space and we see that continuing for decades. We definitely want to be in the forefront for that.”
“There is massive development underway in the new energy space in all different sorts of technologies, and that’s what I’m working on: trying to develop first-of-kind projects that are going to provide new energy solutions for the U.S. and for markets like Europe.”
“Some of these projects are $6 billion-plus projects; and for the first time many of these first technologies are being brought to scale, offering new products that were not available before. That brings a lot of challenges which are interesting to me as a construction lawyer trying to help my clients navigate all these various risks,” Berg says.
“It’s just 10 times as interesting when we’re trying to do something novel…and big.”