Global Law Firm Reed Smith is pleased to announce the appointment of Prajakt Samant as a partner to its Energy & Natural Resources Group. Prajakt will join the firm’s London office on 15 July from McDermott Will & Emery.
Prajakt’s practice focuses primarily on commodity and energy related transactions and regulatory matters. His clients include banks, hedge funds, commodity traders, retailers, and other commodity market participants.
Prajakt has a particularly strong track record in the structuring, acquisition and disposal of energy and non-energy commodity assets. His deal list also includes numerous structured commodity transactions, including those involving energy management and asset optimisation structures. Prajakt also advises on regulatory matters relevant to energy and commodity businesses. He is yet another market leader to join the ranks of experts in Reed Smith’s commodities practice.
Kyri Evagora, partner and chair of Reed Smith’s Energy & Natural Resources Group, commented:
“We are very proud to have landed Praj. He has an exceptionally strong background in transactions in the energy and commodities trading markets and will be a great asset to our firm.”
Prajakt commented:
"I’ve been very impressed by Reed Smith’s growth in recent years. The firm’s strategic focus in the energy and commodities sector has attracted a number of leading practitioners – and has resulted in a world-class platform – which gives clients an unparalleled offering in this sector."
Reed Smith has continued to grow its commodities practice in recent years and has appointed a number of leading partners in this area, transforming the shape and capabilities of the London team. They include: Claude Brown (Clifford Chance), Chris Borg (Dentons), Brett Hillis (Dentons), Jonathan Solomon (Dentons), Peter Zaman (Clifford Chance), and Rashpaul Bahia (McDermott Will & Emery). The firm was also recently joined by regulatory enforcement defence and transactional partner, Michael Yuffee, in Washington D.C. (Michael was formerly the head of energy at Fried Frank). Gary Johnson (a leading upstream oil & gas transactional partner, formerly corporate practice group leader at Burleson LLP) also joined the firm based in Houston last month.
About Reed Smith’s Energy & Natural Resources Group
Reed Smith’s Energy & Natural Resources Group is multidisciplinary, combining regulatory, transactional and litigation disciplines. Its members are located in all of Reed Smith's offices in the UK, the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, providing an exceptional global platform for businesses engaged in the extraction, production, distribution trading, or financing of energy and natural resources.
About Reed Smith
Reed Smith is a global law firm with 25 offices and more than 1,800 lawyers in offices across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the United States.
For further information, please visit www.reedsmith.com or contact Jeyda Star (senior PR & communications manager EME) on +44 (0)20 3116 2571.