Broadly speaking, our international work falls into three categories:
Support for UK clients abroad – many of our clients have an international dimension to their business, and more so than ever we are asked to assist on projects overseas or with a strong overseas flavour.
Our lawyers have advised on:
- energy projects in Ireland, Belgium and Holland
- the electricity and gas interconnectors
- the European gas and renewable energy certificate trading scheme
- Kyoto Protocol clean development mechanism projects in India, Sri Lanka and Brazil
- the regulatory, licensing and contractual issues relating to onshore and offshore oil and gas projects
- the decommissioning of obsolete oil and gas facilities in North West Europe, South East Asia, the Mediterranean and the Gulf, and
- all aspects of public International law and european law
Support for overseas investment in the UK - the liberalised energy markets in the UK have been regarded overseas as an investment opportunity as well as a chance to gain valuable experience of life in a fully competitive energy market. With our detailed working knowledge of the regulatory and contractual regime we are able to provide authoritative advice to inward investors in this sector. The UK regime also affords attractive opportunities for potential service providers to utilities. Our knowledge of the broader commercial and regulatory regime provides the ideal support for companies looking to establish or acquire new businesses operating in this area
Overseas liberalisation - our lawyers have been involved at the heart of activities to complete the liberalisation of the UK energy market, and we can apply our UK experience for the benefit of overseas clients embarking on the liberalisation process
For projects with an international dimension, we recognise that good legal representation at a local level is key in nearly all cases, and we have access to reliable lawyers in many jurisdictions by virtue of:
- our membership of AEEC, an association of European energy law firms of which we are the sole UK member
- our executive membership of Multilaw, a multinational association of law firms from 43 countries with over 4,000 lawyers in 100 of the world's key commercial centres, and
- our membership of State Law Resources, a US network of independent law firms with strong practice areas in state regulated sectors including energy and climate change
- our key relationships with a number of law firms in overseas jurisdictions which have specialist energy law practices, including the US and Germany
- our membership of Legus, an international association of law firms across six continents