CMS further strengthens global energy practice with seven partner promotions

International law firm CMS is pleased to announce the promotion of seven new partners in the firm’s Energy & Climate Change practice. The new partners are part of the firm’s 2020 promotions round where the firm promoted 41 to partner across 15 of its global offices in 2020. Women made up 50% of new partners in the UK, and over 40% globally.

The CMS Energy & Climate Change practice works across 75 offices globally and is led by Munir Hassan, based in London. The UK team alone is comprised of over 200 lawyers who focus on cutting edge energy projects and major high-profile complex deals. Globally, the practice numbers 450 energy and climate change lawyers, including over 100 partners, making the practice one of the largest of its kind.

The firm’s new energy partners are:

• Paris-based Céline Cloché-Dubois advises on urban planning and development law as well as environmental law and renewal energy law for businesses, property professionals, banks and investment funds. Céline is a member of the Wind Energy Commission’s Regulatory Department and of SOLER within the Renewable Energies Board. She monitors legal developments in the renewable energy sector and the practical problems encountered by professionals in that sector.
• London-based Mark Breslin advises clients from all sides of the infrastructure, construction and energy sectors, principally in complex construction and technical engineering disputes. He also provides project advisory services to clients on major developments, with a particular focus on large commercial schemes and power projects (biomass, energy-from-waste, solar and wind). Mark has over 10 years of experience in big-ticket litigation, arbitration, adjudication and ADR processes, including mediation.
• London-based Louise Dalton is a partner in the London Power team, specialising in the clean energy sector. She advises developers, investors, utilities and consumers on power projects, transactions and related regulatory and commercial matters across Europe and beyond. Louise has a particular focus on flexibility, particularly energy storage, EVs, and the transition to Net-Zero. She recently published a book on energy storage: ‘Energy Storage: Legal and Regulatory Challenges and Opportunities’.
• Nairobi-based Samson Mac’Oduol is part of the Corporate & Commercial Department and his main areas of practice are commercial, competition, M&A and employment law. He is a qualified Advocate of the High Court of Kenya. Samson also holds a South African Attorney’s Certificate of Proficiency from the Law Society of Cape of Good Hope.
• Mexico City-based Marcia Santomé Sánchez is part of the Energy & Climate Change Team. For the past ten years, Marcia has focused on projects involving the participation of the private sector in the development of infrastructure and services traditionally carried out by the public sector. She has also participated in the structuring and implementation of PPPs in their different modalities, advising both public sector and private sector clients.  
• Warsaw-based Agnieszka Skorupińska is the head of the Environmental Law Practice in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). She is a qualified advocate with 13 years’ experience and specialises in Polish and EU environmental protection and natural resources law. Agnieszka advises companies on regulatory issues, investment projects, environmental aspects of real property transactions, mergers and acquisitions as well as financing investments. For many years she has successfully represented clients in administrative and court proceedings concerning environmental protection law.
• London-based Juliet Stradling is part of the CMS Energy & Climate Change team. She specialises in energy regulation and has significant experience advising in relation to renewable and thermal generation, transmission and distribution networks, interconnectors, energy trading and energy supply. She advises on commercial contracts, projects, transactions and regulatory matters.  

Munir Hassan, CMS partner and Head of the CMS Energy & Climate Change Group, comments: “I am delighted to welcome our new energy partners. Their appointments reflect the firm’s ongoing investment in its energy and climate change practice, which has a long history as a market-leader. Each of our new partners brings a wealth of knowledge and experience and will play an important role in supporting our clients through challenging times.”

With over 450 specialists working in the sector, these promotions demonstrate that the CMS Energy & Climate Change Group remains a major force in this important space. In the last year, two of the firm’s deals were featured in Inspiratia’s ‘Top 10 Renewables Deals of 2019’ and Munir Hassan won the ‘Lexology Client Choice Award – Energy’. The firm’s Energy & Climate Change practice also remains top-ranked in both Chambers and The Legal 500 in the UK and across CEE.