Power Capital Markets Counsel: Fastest Growth of Six Largest Sectors

A general counsel shortlisting capital markets lawyers for renewable energy companies is buying into the client sector where demand is climbing fastest. Sartori & Partners data show power and renewables deals rose 27.6% year on year, from 1,575 to 2,009 in the settled 12-month windows. No other sector among the six that carry the most capital markets deals grew as quickly. Over the same windows, lateral partner hiring in capital markets held flat (+1.1%), at 185 hires against 183. A busier client sector is meeting a lateral partner market that did not grow. For a renewable energy issuer, that shapes when to appoint counsel and how hard to test the team that is offered.

Six client sectors carry the most capital markets deals: banks and financial institutions, pharma and biotech, technology and software, real estate, utilities, and power and renewables. Their deal counts moved at very different speeds. Power and renewables rose 27.6%, from 1,575 to 2,009. Pharma and biotech rose 14.5%, from 2,880 to 3,298. Utilities, water and waste rose 13.6%, from 861 to 978. Banks and financial institutions rose 7.2%, from 3,224 to 3,457, and real estate rose 6.8%, from 2,001 to 2,138. Technology and software held flat (+4.6%), at 3,279 deals against 3,136. The power growth rate is 1.9 times the pharma rate, the next fastest. Each of these is a whole-sector trend: it counts every deal in the sector, whatever the practice, and is not a trend in capital markets work alone. The capital markets practice itself rose 10.0%, from 11,838 to 13,024, close to the 10.6% rise for all dated deals. For a power issuer, the faster its own sector grows, the more likely it is that the partners it wants are already committed to another power client's timetable.

Capital markets lawyers worked on 26.0% of power and renewables deals, against 26.4% of all dated deals. The gap is 0.4 points, so the practice meets power clients at close to its market rate, neither above it nor below it. That sets power apart from the other energy sector in the six. Capital markets lawyers worked on 62.3% of utility, water and waste deals and 53.1% of pharma and biotech deals, where capital markets lawyers are on most of the sector's deals. In power, the work is shared more widely: projects and infrastructure lawyers were on 32.9% of the sector's deals and corporate and M&A lawyers on 27.7%. One deal can involve several practices, so these shares overlap and are never added. By deal type, deals labeled capital markets were 25.2% of the sector's deals. The practical point for a renewable energy company is coordination: its capital markets team will often work beside project finance and M&A lawyers, and the mandate should say who leads.

Seen from inside the practice, power and renewables was the client sector on 517 capital markets deals in 12 months, or 4.1% of the practice's 12,684. Banks and financial institutions were the client sector on 13.8% of the practice's deals, pharma and biotech on 13.7% and utilities on 4.7%. Many deals carry no sector label, so these shares are not a split of the practice and do not add to a whole. In the Sartori & Partners deal record a count is matters on record, not revenue: the share says how often the practice meets power clients, not what those clients pay. The consequence for a power issuer is that sector fluency cannot be assumed. A capital markets partner can run a heavy book of bank or pharma offerings and see few power deals in a year, so ask the proposed lead how many power and renewables offerings they ran in the past 12 months, and who on the team handled the asset-level diligence.

Capital markets lateral partner hiring held flat (+1.1%), at 185 hires against 183. Lateral hiring at every level in the practice held flat (+6.7%), at 609 moves against 571. Among lawyers with a power and renewables focus, partner moves held flat (-3.8%), at 127 against 132. Set beside the deal figures, the pattern is plain. Power deals rose 27.6% and the practice's own deals rose 10.0%, while lateral partner hiring in capital markets stayed flat. A busier sector met a partner lateral market that did not grow. For the client, the safer course is to appoint counsel before the deal timetable is fixed, and ask how many live mandates the lead partner is carrying.

Two firm lists apply here, and neither ranks capital markets work on power deals alone; no such list exists. The power list counts all of the sector's deal work, in every practice. The capital markets list counts the practice's deals in every client sector. Four names appear on both: Latham & Watkins, White & Case, Clifford Chance and Davis Polk & Wardwell. The other six firms on the power list are Watson Farley & Williams, Hunton Andrews Kurth, CMS, Kirkland & Ellis, DLA Piper and Hogan Lovells Cadwalader. Sartori & Partners shows each firm as a rank and a band of deals advised, not an exact count. The top firm on the power list falls in the 101-150 band. A renewable energy company building a panel can read the overlap as firms with both sector volume and issuance volume, and then ask every candidate on either list for its own power offering record.

32.9% of the sector's deals were handled with lawyers in New York, against 36.8% of bank and financial institution deals, the practice's largest client sector. London and Washington follow for power, at 19.0% and 17.0%. The sharpest difference is Houston: 12.2% of power and renewables deals were handled with lawyers there, against 3.0% of bank deals. One deal can count in several cities, so these shares overlap and are never summed. A renewable energy issuer should expect its offering team to draw on more than one office and should ask which city holds the lead partner.

First, move early. Power and renewables deals rose 27.6% year on year while capital markets partner hiring held flat (+1.1%), so more work in your sector is meeting a lateral partner market that did not grow. Second, do not pay a sector premium for capital markets work alone: the practice sits on 26.0% of power deals, about its 26.4% rate across all deals. Third, test power experience directly, because power is 4.1% of the practice's deals and a strong capital markets partner may see few of them. Fourth, decide who leads when capital markets, project finance and M&A lawyers share a deal. Fifth, confirm the office: a Houston bench matters far more for power than for bank work. Sartori & Partners builds these figures from public law-firm announcements, firm websites and professional profiles, checked monthly.