Renewables Finance Counsel in 2026: Power Is the Second Client Sector

A company that builds or buys power assets and needs renewable energy finance lawyers is shopping where two markets meet. Sartori & Partners data show that power and renewables were on 239 of the 3,053 deals that banking and finance lawyers worked on in the 12 months to October 2026, or 7.8% of the practice's deals. Among its client sectors, only banks and financial institutions sit higher. Seen from the sector, the same lawyers were on 12.0% of the 1,989 power deals on record. Projects lawyers, at 32.9%, corporate and M&A lawyers, at 27.7%, and capital markets lawyers, at 26.0%, sat beside them. One deal can carry several practices, so these shares overlap and are never added. This report reads both sides of the pair: what power means to a finance team, what finance lawyers mean to a power deal, and where the two books meet.

Banks and financial institutions were on 17.8% of banking and finance deals. Power and renewables came next at 7.8%, ahead of real estate at 6.8% and financial sponsors at 6.6%. The telling comparison is with the whole deal record. Power and renewables appear on 4.1% of all dated deals, so the finance practice works on power 1.9 times as often as the deal market at large.

Many deals carry no sector label, so the bars do not cover the whole book and say nothing about its unlabeled part. For a power company the reading is about familiarity. A finance team for which power is a standing client sector has worked through your industry's financing questions many times in a year, not once. Before you discuss rates with a prospective firm, ask how much of its finance team's year goes to power and which partners carried that work.

Banking and finance lawyers worked on 239 power and renewables deals in 12 months, 12.0% of the sector's deals. Across all dated deals the practice appears on 6.3%, so finance lawyers turn up on a power deal 1.9 times as often as on the average deal. Bank deals give a second yardstick: finance lawyers worked on 15.8% of bank and financial institution deals, a gap of 3.8 points over their share of power deals.

The chart shows who else is on the sector's deals, not a pecking order. A single power deal can carry a projects lawyer, a corporate lawyer and a finance lawyer at once, which is why the shares overlap. For a company, the consequence is about staffing. The finance specialist is one of several practices on a power deal, so ask at the outset who leads the matter and how the finance lawyers are staffed beside the projects or corporate team.

Inside the finance practice, banking and lending was the label on 44.5% of deals and leveraged and acquisition finance on 23.4%. Project and infrastructure finance carried 10.7%, or 326 deals. On the sector's side, project and infrastructure finance was the label on 24.8% of power deals, against 5.1% for banking and lending. Across the whole deal record, project and infrastructure finance is a small label, on 2.1% of dated deals.

The two mixes lean in opposite directions. The finance practice's work is weighted to general lending, while power deals are weighted to project finance and capital markets. Project work at 10.7% is a regular part of the finance book but a minority of it. When you shortlist, ask each firm for the project and infrastructure finance matters its finance lawyers closed in the last 12 months, not for its total count of finance deals.

Power and renewables deals rose 27.6%, with 2,009 in the settled 12 months to September 2026 against 1,575 a year earlier. Banking and finance deals rose 12.1% over the same windows, 3,039 against 2,710. The whole deal record rose 10.6%, 48,216 against 43,590. Finance work moved close to the market's pace; power work ran well ahead of it. No separate count exists for finance work on power deals, so these are two readings, each on its own record.

Lateral hiring in the practice moved the same way. In the Sartori & Partners lateral record, banking and finance partners who changed firms rose 10.6%, 604 in the settled 12 months against 546 the year before. All banking and finance lateral moves rose 14.1%, 2,015 against 1,766. These counts are lawyers changing firms, not a measure of any firm's headcount. For a power company, sector work climbing faster than the finance practice's overall work means more clients asking for the same partners' time. Retain finance counsel before the timetable is set, not once it is already tight.

The two firm lists answer different questions. The banking and finance list ranks firms on all the practice's deals, in every sector; the power list ranks firms on all power and renewables deals, whatever the practice. No list exists for finance work on power deals alone. Latham & Watkins heads both, in the 151-250 band of finance deals advised and the 101-150 band of power deals advised.

Counted name by name, the firms on both lists are Latham & Watkins, White & Case, Clifford Chance, Hogan Lovells Cadwalader and Davis Polk & Wardwell. Each pairs a high volume of finance work across sectors with a high volume of power work across practices. That pairing does not show that the same partners do both. Ask each of these firms which of its finance partners worked on power matters in the last 12 months, and test the answer against the deal you have in hand.

32.9% of the sector's deals were handled with lawyers in New York. London followed at 19.0% and Washington at 17.0%, with Houston at 12.2% and Paris at 9.0%. One deal counts in every city where lawyers worked on it, so the rows are never added.

Where finance lawyers change firms is a different map. Sartori & Partners figures show New York took 21.5% of banking and finance lateral moves and London 16.4%. Houston took 2.4%, an index of 102 against the market, and Washington 2.8%, an index of 50. For a company whose power work runs through Washington or Houston, the finance partner you need may well sit in New York or London. Plan for a team split across offices rather than insisting on one city.

Treat power as a standing sector for any finance firm you consider. It is on 7.8% of banking and finance deals, second only to banks, so ask every candidate firm to show its power matters and name the partners behind them. Expect a team, not a lone specialist: finance lawyers sit on 12.0% of power deals and work beside projects, corporate and capital markets lawyers. Ask specifically for project and infrastructure finance experience, the label on 24.8% of power deals.

Plan around demand. Power deals rose 27.6% on settled windows, while banking and finance deals rose 12.1%. Use the five firms on both lists as a starting shortlist, not a verdict, and ask which partners did the power work. Then engage before the financing timetable is fixed, because the finance partners you want are working for a sector that is growing faster than their practice.