Patty concentrates her practice in corporate finance and transactional matters, with a focus on providing strategic legal counsel to energy industry clients. Her experience in representing lenders and borrowers, buyers, sellers and investors, and working in a wide variety of regulated and unregulated industries, gives her the perspective to focus on the important negotiating points to achieve the client's objectives.
Energy Industry and Energy Markets
Patty counsels electric and natural gas and other energy companies in connection with the acquisitions and divestitures of, and investments in infrastructure assets, and the legal, credit and operational risks associated with energy supply, energy marketing, and derivatives trading. She has drafted, reviewed and recommended changes to risk management and documentation policies and procedures, and has drafted and negotiated a wide variety of energy commodity and derivatives master trading agreements for energy market participants including regulated utilities, merchant energy companies, financial institutions, electric cooperatives and public power entities. She has also documented and negotiated many types of credit support arrangements and liquidity facilities for energy market participants, including lien-based collateral programs.
Patty was actively involved in the legislative process which led to the Dodd-Frank Act, and she continues to represent energy companies and trade associations in the related Dodd-Frank rulemaking process at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. She has drafted 25 comment letters to the CFTC and other financial markets regulators on behalf of energy industry clients.
Complex Corporate Transactions
Patty represents public and private companies in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and investments.
Corporate Governance
Patty counsels public and private companies in connection with:
- Corporate governance, risk management and compliance
- Financial disclosure and shareholder relations
- Audit and other board committee charters
- Corporate ethics investigations
- Senior executive employment and compensation matters
- Arbitration or settlement of major litigation
- General corporate and securities law matters
In addition to her private practice, Patty served for a number of years as a Deputy General Counsel for a Fortune 500 energy holding company client. In that role, she managed an in-house legal staff, had budget responsibility, and selected and supervised outside counsel representing the company and its subsidiaries.
Corporate Finance
Patty represents borrowers and lenders in debt financing matters, including:
- Acquisition-related finance
- Multi-currency facilities
- Synthetic lease transactions and other structured finance transactions
- Complex intercreditor and subordination agreements
- Interest rate and currency hedging documentation
- Credit support and collateral structures