Haynes and Boone's Newsroom

Paul Dickerson in San Jose Business Journal article, "Cleantech Upstarts Team With Big Oil"
06/08/2009

Cleantech’s initial attempts to take on incumbent industry giants such as oil companies are starting to give way to symbiotic partnerships.

And the consensus among Silicon Valley investors is growing that partnering with incumbents is critical to the future of the renewable energy market.

Houston-based Baker Botts LLP and Dallas-based Haynes and Boone LLP, both new to the Silicon Valley legal market, are playing a key role in the growing trend. Attorneys at the two firms are making strategic introductions between large institutional energy clients and venture capital clients focused on renewable energy technologies. The law firms are working to orient VCs on what it takes to develop a successful business in the heavily regulated, multibillion-dollar energy sector.

Oil companies have a natural role in the development of alternative energy and certainly alternative fuels, said Haynes and Boone cleantech partner Paul Dickerson. The 500-plus-lawyer firm absorbed the San Jose and Orange County offices of MacPherson Kwok Chen & Heid LLP in February.

“Not only do the incumbent energy players have decades of experience in energy markets, but they have deep pockets,” Dickerson said. “These partnerships are something that assist our cleantech entrepreneurs in achieving their goals in a time frame that’s consequential.”

Dickerson served as chief operating officer of the Energy Department’s Office of Energy efficiency and Renewable Energy during the Bush administration.

By bringing together developing technologies with established markets, existing markets can be better served by those who already operate in that space.

This article excerpted from the San Jose Business Journal. To view the full text, click here. (Subscription may be required.)