Sam Saunders

Sam Saunders is a Partner in the Firm’s Banking and Credit Practice. Based in New York, he advises private equity and strategic investors, developers and lenders on the development and financing of energy and infrastructure projects and businesses. His practice spans the lifecycle of energy and infrastructure development and finance—from early-stage joint ventures and governmental arrangements to project development, construction and operations. His work also includes project and portfolio acquisitions, as well as dispositions and contentious, distressed, restructuring and bankruptcy matters.

Sam’s practice includes advising clients on commercial bank facilities, private credit, project bonds, private placements (144A and 4(a)2 notes), ECA, MLA and Department of Energy financings, warehouse, mezzanine and borrowing base facilities, tax credit monetizations, structured and common equity. He has advised on a wide range of U.S. and international projects, including renewable power (solar, onshore and offshore wind), battery storage, EVs, CCUS, hydrogen, data centers, towers, fiber, conventional power, manufacturing, transmission, RNG, LNG, pipelines, petrochemicals, water and mining.

Sam worked in the London office of a major international law firm for over 8 years. Sam earned his J.D. from Stanford Law School. He earned his Ph.D. and M.S. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering with distinction from the University of Virginia. He is admitted to practice in New York.

Notable experience, including prior to joining Simpson Thacher, includes advising clients across the energy and infrastructure sector:

Power:

• Blackstone Infrastructure Partners in its approximately $1 billion investment in a portfolio of wind and solar projects with NextEra Energy Resources
• KKR on a development financing facility for Avantus, a U.S. developer of large utility-scale solar and solar-plus-storage project
• Developer of a CCGT project on an equipment financing from a private credit lender
• BlackRock and Jupiter Power on Jupiter Power's holdco facility
• Jupiter Power on construction, back-leverage and tax equity bridge financing for a portfolio of battery storage projects
• BlackRock and Akaysha Energy on Akaysha Energy's holdco facility
• Intersect Power on its holdco facility
• Clenera Power on its mezzanine debt financing
• Sponsor and its portfolio battery storage company on a holdco financing from a private credit lender
• Sunpower on its liability management and bankruptcy matters
• Borrower of a construction warehouse for EVs and charging infrastructure from a private credit lender
• Borrower in a construction and tax equity bridge financing of three RNG projects provided by a private credit lender

• Various construction loan financings for data centers in the United States, Europe and Asia
• Blackstone in the financing of Related Digital's $16 billion data center campus in Saline Township, Michigan
• Blackstone in the acquisition of a significant minority stake in Rowan Digital Infrastructure, a leading sustainable hyperscale data center developer
• QualityTech, LP ("QTS") in an inaugural Rule 144A/Regulation S offering of over $4.5 billion aggregate principal amount of Senior Secured Notes due 2036
• Macquarie Asset Management in an unregistered offering of $2.35 billion aggregate principal amount of 9.250% Senior Secured Notes due 2030 by its AI infrastructure partnership with Applied Digital Corporation through a subsidiary, which will fund construction for two of the partnership's new high-performance computing data centers in North Dakota
• Tiger Infrastructure, CBRE and several other sponsors on private placements and bank facilities for towers, fiber, and wireless
• Harmoni Towers in its inaugural $620 million private placement financing, the largest project finance cell tower bond issuance in the United States to date

• The sponsors on numerous LNG project financings in the U.S., Canada, Africa and Asia
• Chevron New Energies in its acquisition of a controlling interest in the ACES Delta, LLC joint venture, which is developing a green hydrogen project in Utah financed by a Department of Energy loan guarantee
• The borrower in an approximately $1 billion project financing of a gas gathering and CCS project

• A private credit lender to a water infrastructure company with an international portfolio of water projects
• Golden Triangle Polymers Company in the project financing of a $8.5 billion integrated polymers facility in Texas
• Advice to various mining project companies and their sponsors on debt and equity financing, offtake and host government arrangements and dispute resolution