Nossaman's Infrastructure Group Once Again Profiled as a "Project Finance Practice Group of the Year"
Our Infrastructure Group was once again profiled in Law360 as a result of being named a “Project Finance Practice Group of the Year” (subscription required) for 2021. The group has been named a “Practice Group of the Year” in this sector three times previously. Law360 highlighted our Infrastructure Group’s efforts over the last year working on “major public infrastructure projects” and states that these high profile engagements helped earn the team “a spot among Law360’s 2021 Project Finance Groups of the Year.”
The article notes that the group’s deep bench of more than 30 infrastructure attorneys are “involved in contract implementation work on projects across the country.” It highlights our representation of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on “its proposed LaGuardia AirTrain project, which would connect LaGuardia Airport to the New York City subway and the Long Island Railroad” and our work on the “Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority's $6.8 billion project expanding BART, the rail transit system in the San Francisco Bay Area, to reach downtown San Jose and Santa Clara.”
Commenting on his team’s accomplishments over the past year, Patrick Harder, Chair of the Infrastructure Group, exclaimed, “There is a lot to celebrate.”
Andrée Blais is lauded for her work leading the “Sepulveda Pass Transit Corridor, which will connect the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles’ Westside and, in a second phase, the LAX Airport – through a fixed-guideway transit service.”
Discussing the project, Andrée said our Firm is helping to guide the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority “through a type of project delivery that has never before been used in a transit project” and added that, in 2021, the “authority signed two pre-development agreements for different project designs, one involving a monorail and one involving a heavy rail line.” Regarding her work on the project and the impact it will have in the Los Angeles region, Andrée stated that she appreciates how the work is “helping to create a public benefit, something that will improve a community and impact people's lives.”
Brandon Davis commented on how, in an effort to better serve our clients, Nossaman made a strategic decision “to focus on public project finance decades ago.” He declared he has helped numerous clients “navigate the hurdles” that can be encountered on large scale public projects and argued “each project needs a champion, someone that is going to push the project forward” for it to be successful.
Patrick closed the article by discussing how the passage of a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill in November 2021 will effect infrastructure projects over the next five years. He posited, “Public investments in infrastructure will unfold on two separate tracks – ‘shovel-ready projects’ that are expected to get under contract right away and long-term ones that will need more time to take off.”
He concluded, “There are projects in both categories that are, right now, excellent candidates for use of some of these funds. And, there are other projects waiting in the wings that will benefit.” He also mentioned that in alignment with the Biden Administration’s focus on social equity, “We’re going to see more focus on [transit and] making sure that [it] doesn’t create problems for the disadvantaged.”