Ata Dinlenc is of counsel in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and a member of Gibson Dunn’s Power and Renewables Group. He is an experienced counselor to clients across a variety of transactional and commercial matters, with a focus on capital-intensive projects.

Ata advises clients on acquisitions & divestitures, joint-ventures, tiered equity investments, energy tax credit monetization, commodity price hedging and offtake contracts, and other commercial contracts involving energy infrastructure projects and other closely-held companies. He also advises borrowers and lenders, including both commercial banks and non-bank financial institutions such as private equity firms and other specialty lenders, in a range of financings, including project financings and mezzanine loans. Ata has been recommended by Legal 500 (2013) for his experience in the project finance area.

He applies his decades of experience and industry knowledge to a range of M&A, financing and commercial issues facing clients to facilitate innovative structuring on complex transactions.

His recent experience includes representing AIP, a Danish investment fund, in its investment in the Little Bear 160 MWac solar project in California and in the Prospero 300 MWac solar project in Texas and representing a subsidiary of The Carlyle Group in the sale of an interest in a 600 MW gas-fired power project.

Ata has been a panel moderator at numerous energy-sector conferences and is the author of “Financing Renewable Energy Projects: An Inflection Point?,” Infrastructure Journal, January 6, 2009.

He received his Juris Doctor in 1997 from Fordham University School of Law, where he was a Notes & Articles Editor on the Intellectual Property, Media & Entertainment Law Journal. Ata earned his  Bachelor of Arts in International Studies (with a concentration in Economics) from Johns Hopkins University in 1993.

Representative recent transactions:

• Representing a Danish investment fund in its cash equity investments at project financing closings in the “Little Bear” 160 MWac solar power project located in California and in the “Prospero” 300 MWac solar project located in Texas; both sponsored by Longroad Energy.
• Advising Berkshire Hathaway Energy as investor in billions of dollars of well-publicized utility-scale renewable energy projects in California, Texas and other states in recent years, including those sponsored by Lincoln Clean Energy, Innergex (f/k/a Alterra Power Corp.), Blackrock, Invenergy, Ares Capital, Longroad Energy, and Clearway; as well as the acquisitions of the Santa Rita wind project and Agua Caliente solar project.
• Representing a Denmark-based large family office fund in its acquisition and ownership of a project development platform and portfolio of solar power projects in the U.S.
• Representing a Terna Energy, a Europe-based independent power project developer, in its acquisition, development and financing (tax equity and tiered debt) of several large utility-scale wind energy project in Texas and in its related power price hedging arrangements.
• Representing Vistra Energy in its acquisitions of development-stage power project companies.
• Representing an affiliate of Softbank Energy, a member of the Softbank group of companies, in its acquisition of a portfolio of U.S. utility-scale solar power projects and in related project financings.
• Represented PacifCorp, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, in its acquisitions of several development-stage wind power projects in Montana and Wyoming from Invenergy.
• Representing Orion Renewables, a U.S. power project development company, in the sale of its development-stage renewable energy projects.
• Represented Korean banks as lenders in their $325 million secured term loan refinancing of a U.S. coal mining company.
• Represented a Europe-based utility company in its potential acquisition of an electricity transmission system in the U.S.
• Represented Sempra Energy as strategic investor in its potential acquisition of a multi-billion dollar gas pipeline project in Peru.
• Represented a major international commercial bank in its planned construction debt financing of two 60 MW gas-fired power projects in Argentina.
• Represented a Japanese conglomerate in its equity sponsorship of a solar power project in Chile.
• Represented a US-based private equity firm in its potential investment in a Brazilian wind project.
• Represented a municipal electric company in Texas in its $200+ million equipment and construction services procurement contracts for a planned gas-fired power project.