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Overview

With a background in energy policy that pre-dates her days as a lawyer, Sara brings a long-standing and deep personal commitment to renewable energy to her practice.

With more than two decades of experience in the renewable energy field, Sara has a broad energy background and is highly knowledgeable about the complex policy and regulatory framework that surrounds the renewable field. She represents developers throughout the development, procurement, construction, and acquisition/divestiture stages of renewable energy projects. Sara enjoys helping clients navigate complex transactions that require a holistic understanding of industry, regulatory, and market trends. She has, for example, assisted numerous developer clients in build transfer arrangements with utilities across the country and understands the important role such transactions play in laying the foundation for long-lasting partnerships through the project’s construction, transfer, and ongoing business with the utility.

In addition to her significant utility-scale development and M&A experience, she is also well versed in community-scale solar programs across the country and helps clients navigate the evolving regulatory regimes in various jurisdictions as well as the acquisition, divestiture, and financing for portfolios of community scale assets.

Sara joined Husch Blackwell in 2023 out of enthusiasm for both the firm’s robust national energy practice and its strong presence in the MISO, SPP, and ERCOT regions and surrounding states where so many of the clients she works with are active. While her own practice is nationwide, she never hesitates to jump into projects in and around her home state of Minnesota.

Clients appreciate Sara’s commitment to and passion for the renewable energy industry and its technologies, as well as her practical, commercial approach to legal solutions. Sara thrives on working directly with clients and becoming an integral part of their project teams. She knows how essential the success of these projects is, not only to a client’s business but more broadly to society, and her priority is to ensure they cross the finish line.

Industry

Services

Recognition

  • The Legal 500 United States
    • Energy: Renewable/alternative power, Recommended attorney, 2024

Education

  • J.D., University of Minnesota Law School
    • magna cum laude
  • M.P.P., Princeton University
  • B.A., Gustavus Adolphus College

Admissions

  • Minnesota
  • Oregon

Professional Memberships and Certifications

  • Oregon State Bar Association
  • Minnesota State Bar Association

The collegiality and level of trust is surprising—maybe even shocking—for a firm this large. It can be a gamechanger in the practice of law.

Experience
  • Represented various clients in negotiating and closing several build transfer agreements for large wind and solar energy generation projects with several utilities throughout the MISO region.
  • Represented numerous solar developers in the acquisition, divestiture, and/or financing of single project or portfolios of renewable energy and/or storage projects in various jurisdictions across the country.
  • Represented developers and subscribers in the negotiation and drafting of subscription and offtake arrangements.
  • Negotiated and drafted various engineering, procurement, and construction agreements; balance of plant; developer services; and operation and maintenance contracts for various clients.
  • Assisted clients in various tax equity and debt financings related to projects in various locations (e.g. Minnesota, Colorado, California, New Jersey, Maryland, New York, and Massachusetts).
  • Represented various clients in state energy permitting and regulatory matters for large energy facilities in the Midwest as well as interconnection and community solar program matters.
Outside the Office

Sara is a potter but mostly stays busy outside of work with her family which includes three teen or pre-teen sons. They all especially enjoy spending time outside skiing, mountain biking, camping, and hiking.

Community Leadership

Sara prioritizes a variety of pro bono work including assisting churches, temples, and other non-profit organizations with their energy transactions as well as a variety of other pro bono matters including asylum cases. She has sat on various boards and been a regular reviewer of academic grant proposals in the renewable energy field. She has also been an active volunteer with art in the schools programming in her children’s schools.