Sam Kettering is a leading transactional construction lawyer and focuses his practice on advising utilities, project sponsors, and investors in the development and financing of energy and infrastructure projects. He also has experience advising on corporate matters, including joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, and energy regulatory filings and proceedings.
Sam has helped lead projects in various stages of development from initial bid through financial close and into commercial operation. In addition, he has extensive experience on the “front end” of energy, industrial, and commercial projects such as renewable energy projects (battery storage, solar, onshore and offshore wind), LNG facilities, power plants, food processing facilities and commercial office buildings, including drafting and negotiating power purchase agreements (PPAs), engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and other construction contracts, long-term supply agreements, tolling agreements, equipment purchases, and operation and maintenance (O&M) agreements.
Prior to joining McGuireWoods, Sam was a practicing attorney for a boutique law firm in Alexandria, Virginia where he concentrated on corporate law and taxation.
Experience
- Co-lead outside counsel in drafting and negotiating myriad of transportation, installation, construction and supply contracts for the development of a 2,600 MW utility-scale offshore wind project located off the coast of Virginia.
- Negotiation of the construction contract for the first Jones Act compliant offshore wind jack-up vessel.
- Development of RFPs, evaluation of bids, and negotiation of EPC, installation and procurement contracts for subsequent license renewal upgrade projects at nuclear generating facilities.
- Representation of a Fortune 500 power company in its acquisition of a 400 MW electric wind project in Missouri.
- Representation of an American power and energy company in the development of an RFP, evaluation of bids, and negotiation of a design-build agreement for a 20-floor, 1 million square foot commercial office tower in downtown Richmond, Virginia as part of a $365 million synthetic lease financing arrangement.
- Representation of a Fortune 500 electric utility in the development of an RFP, evaluation of bids and drafting and negotiation of EPC contract for a 1,588-megawatt combined-cycle, natural gas-fired power station in Virginia.
- Representation in the drafting and negotiation of EPC contract for an offshore wind facility off the coast of Virginia as part of the mid-Atlantic’s first offshore wind initiative.
- Representation in the development of RFPs, evaluation of bids, and negotiation for pollution control projects at existing coal generating facilities.
- Representation of a large American conglomerate chemical company in the sale of inside-the-fence energy facilities coupled with offtake agreements to buy back energy from the sold facilities; counsel also included energy regulatory proceedings to obtain approval of the sale by state regulators.
- Representation of large industrial company for negotiation of EPC contracts for addition of new inside-the-fence combined heat and power facilities in Oklahoma and Louisiana
- Represented a developer/energy provider in the acquisition of inside-the-fence energy facility at a chemical plant and associated state regulatory approvals.
- Counsel to developers, integrators, lenders, contractors and purchasers of solar generation projects, including commercial and utility scale PVs from 500kW to 200 MW in Virginia, California, North Carolina, Utah, Indiana, Georgia, Connecticut, South Carolina and Oregon.
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Loyola University Chicago School of LawJD
Executive Editor, Loyola Consumer Law Review
2011 -
Boston CollegeBS
Finance and Economics
2008
Board Member, VCU Health Pauly Heart Center Advisory Board, 2023-present
- Speaker, Offshore Wind Market Update and Supply-Chain Investment Opportunities, July 14, 2022
- Speaker, "Force Majeure Post-COVID-19 and Contract," Construction Industry Challenges 2022, May 24, 2022
- Virginia
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
Selected for inclusion in Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch, Construction Law, Corporate Law, Mergers and Acquisitions Law, 2024, 2025
Named to “Legal Elite,” Construction Law, Virginia Business, 2023
- Author, Final Increased Tariffs Announced in Response to U.S. Trade Representative Review of Chinese Imports, McGuireWoods Legal Alert, October 22, 2024
- Author, Increased Tariffs Announced in Response to U.S. Trade Representative Review of Chinese Imports, McGuireWoods Legal Alert, May 21, 2024
- Author, U.S. Solar Manufacturers File New Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Petitions, McGuireWoods Legal Alert, May 9, 2024
- Author, Biden Administration Finalizes Three Wind Energy Areas off Mid-Atlantic Coast, McGuireWoods Legal Alert, August 1, 2023
- Author, Gov. Kathy Hochul Releases New York’s Third Competitive Offshore Wind RFP Solicitation, McGuireWoods Legal Alert, August 1, 2022
- Author, White House Launches Federal-State Offshore Wind Partnership to Supercharge Production by 2030, McGuireWoods Legal Alert, June 29, 2022
- Author, Biden’s Path to Clean Energy: May 11 North Carolina Offshore Wind Lease Auction, McGuireWoods Legal Alert, March 29, 2022
- Author, Feeling the Heat: Solar Projects Face Rising Costs and Increased Uncertainty, McGuireWoods Legal Alert, March 14, 2022