Morrison & Foerster is the leading firm in Cleantech. Our dominance in the Cleantech space is a direct result of our ability to stay ahead of the curve on legislative and regulatory developments, investment trends, and corporate sustainable activity.
The Cleantech Group includes more than 150 lawyers around the world—from California to Denver, New York to London, and Israel to Asia—providing seamless services to a broad range of clients impacted by, and commercializing technology, products, and services to address, climate change and natural resource constraints.
Three primary driving forces in Cleantech today are intellectual property, government regulation, and the need for renewable energy and energy efficiency.
Our corporate and technology transactions attorneys team with litigators and patent counsel to help clients preserve and exploit the value of their core technology.
Our environmental and energy regulatory lawyers navigate clients through the rapidly changing legal framework related to climate change and protection of natural resources to identify impacts on a company’s compliance and operations plan, as well as business opportunities created by regulation.
Our transactional lawyers advise companies in Cleantech-related industries on corporate governance, acquisition, development, and finance matters, helping companies acquire synergistic assets, obtain equity, debt, and development financing, and acquire, develop, and operate energy production facilities, core technology, and energy efficient and other green businesses.
Cleantech is a diverse industry sector. Our practitioners have specific industry experience across many Cleantech sub-industries and subject matters, such as renewable and alternative energy, regulation of carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions, and marketing, advertising, and other "green" activities.
We have the experience and expertise to provide clients with effective counsel and expertise in all of the following areas: Biofuels, Biological Solutions/Biomimicry, Carbon Markets and Trading, Carbon Tracking and Sequestration, Clean Conventional Energy, Energy Efficiency and Intelligence, Fuel Cells and Batteries, Hydroelectric, Nuclear, Other Renewable and Sustainable Energy, Solar, Sustainable Green Programs, Sustainable Organics, Ocean (Wave and Tidal) Energy, Waste Reduction/Waste-to-Energy and Wind.
We are known as an intellectual property powerhouse in the technology sector. The Cleantech group is able to leverage our extensive experience in the biotechnology, medical technology, pharmaceutical, healthcare, and life sciences industries to complement its expertise in patent and intellectual property issues as they pertain to the Cleantech sector, including strategic IP counseling, patent prosecution intellectual property due diligence, strategic technology and intellectual property transactions to license or acquire technology, and commercialize intellectual property, products, and services in almost every Cleantech sector, often with an eye toward maximizing the "carbon" value in such transactions and ensuring access to governmental benefits and capital markets.
We have a team of leading environmental law experts—many of whom were former state or federal regulators and prosecutors—and premier land use attorneys—who have been instrumental in the advancement of some of California’s most important private and public development projects—who can streamline and facilitate the permitting, development, and financing of projects, as well as the resolution of disputes. These lawyers are experienced in representing the full range of sustainable business entities, federal, state, and local governments, and nonprofits, shaping and responding to new regulations surrounding climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, and renewable and non-renewable resources.
Our energy attorneys understand and advise on new legislation, such as RPS standards, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and the Waxman-Markey Energy Bill, that could greatly expand national clean energy capacity. Our energy lawyers have extensive experience representing clients in proceedings to develop the regulatory framework for renewable and alternative energy projects, the restructuring of retail power and gas facilities, and the construction or expansion of generation, transmission, and distribution facilities.
Our Private Equity Fund group has extensive experience and expertise with renewables, venture capital, and private equity Cleantech funds. Our formation, tax, debt, and carbon teams work seamlessly to structure funds providing the greatest flexibility for fund managers, while providing the protections institutional limited partners expect.
Our project finance and development attorneys work on a vast array of domestic and international energy projects, including solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, landfill, and nuclear projects. They represent finance parties, developers, landowners, and other project parties in all phases of the acquisition, development, and financing of energy projects.
Our Cleantech clients include Abengoa Solar, Agilewaves, AltraBiofuels, Amyris Biotechnologies, Inc., Aqua Fund 1, AREVA Solar, Inc., BRE Properties, Burt's Bees, Inc., California Forestry Association , Carbonetworks, Inc., Cassatt Corporation, Catchlight Energy, LLC, CleanFish, Cleantech America, Deere & Company, Divinely D'lish/18 Rabbits, Driptech, Inc., Encorp, Inc., Energy Biosciences Institute, Environmental Defense Fund, Lucasfilm Ltd., MAP Royalty, Inc., Maxwell Technologies, Inc., Mendel Biotechnologies, Inc., The Nature Conservancy, NextLight Renewable Power, LLC, Odwalla, Inc., Optimal Technologies, Inc., Revolution Foods, RREEF America, Stewardship Council, Union Pacific Railroad, and the U.S. Green Building Council.