Energy Transactional, Finance and Regulatory Practice

Cogent Law provides strategic legal counsel on energy regulation, project finance, power contracts, and regulatory compliance before FERC, the Department of Energy, and state energy authorities across the United States.

Energy law is one of the most technically demanding and heavily regulated areas of legal practice. Whether you are developing a renewable energy project, negotiating a power purchase agreement, managing pipeline or transmission compliance, or navigating proceedings before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) or the Department of Energy (DOE), you need counsel who understands not just the law, but the industry.

Our energy law practice is led by Thomas P. Gross, an attorney with over 30 years of experience in energy regulation, project finance, and complex energy transactions. He previously served as an attorney and Deputy Assistant General Counsel at FERC and the Department of Energy, where he supervised up to 40 attorneys on politically and legally sensitive energy matters and helped formulate the federal rules and regulations that reshaped today's electric and natural gas markets, including rules that created new flexibility in supply sources and transmission for large end users such as data centers.

That regulatory background, combined with deep transactional experience on project-financing deals in the $250 million to $500 million range, gives our clients a distinctive advantage: counsel who understands how regulators think, how financial institutions think, how projects are financed, and how contracts need to be structured to withstand regulatory and financial scrutiny.

His experience transcends domestic energy issues to encompass significant international experience. With in-country experience in Indonesia, India, Nepal, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Dominican Republic, and more, Mr. Gross is powerfully equipped and capable of understanding and dealing with unique regulatory and financial issues that emerge in foreign jurisdictions. Foreign issues transcend the parties involved in the project; Mr. Gross has significant experience dealing with members of foreign Parliaments, high-level members of foreign executive branches such as Ministers of Energy, and CEOs of participating companies. Energy is a critical component of infrastructure development for promoting economic progress. It is peppered with political issues, financial issues, regulatory issues, national security issues, and integrally tied to stable economic progress. Mr. Gross’s experience encompasses all of these, e.g., Team Leader for drafting the Indonesian Oil & Gas Law signed by President Megawatti Sukarno Putti, drafter of the Bulgarian Energy law, drafter of the Macedonian hydroelectric licenses, and more.

Mr. Gross was trained as a physicist, holds a graduate degree from Stanford University in Applied Physics, and is an Adjunct Professor teaching Corporate Law & Securities, and International Business Transactions at the Graduate School of Business for The George Washington University. That multidisciplinary background, spanning physics, law, finance, energy, and technology, informs every engagement.