The following is an excerpt from Practice Perspectives: Vault's Guide to Legal Practice Areas.
Roland Estevez is a partner in Milbank’s global project, energy, and infrastructure finance group in New York. Mr. Estevez’s practice is primarily focused on the representation of financial institutions, multinational corporations, and developers across a broad spectrum of sectors, including renewable and conventional power, social and transportation infrastructure, and mining throughout the Americas and particularly in Latin America. He is recognized as a leading project finance lawyer in Chambers Latin America, Chambers USA, and The Legal 500.
Carolina Walther-Meade is a partner in Milbank’s global project, energy, and infrastructure finance and Latin America practice groups and is consistently recognized as a leading project finance lawyer in Chambers Latin America, Chambers USA, and Legal 500 Latin America. She was named a 2025 Lawyer of the Year by Women in Business Law Americas and was one of 15 attorneys in the United States selected by Latin Lawyer as an Inspiring Woman in Law. Carolina has extensive experience representing clients in cross-border financings and international project finance and development, with an emphasis on transportation, oil and gas, infrastructure, mining, and energy projects throughout Latin America. Many of these transactions have been recognized as Deals of the Year in publications such as IJGlobal and LatinFinance.
Describe your practice area and what it entails.
We advise clients on highly structured financings involving projects and assets in the renewables, advanced energy, digital infrastructure, and clean technology sectors. Project finance generally focuses on the financing of a specific project in which lenders or investors look principally to the revenues generated by its operation as the sources of repayment and return on investment (e.g., revenue from the sale of power from geothermal stations, small module (nuclear) reactors, wind and solar plants, and utility-scale batteries, as well as carbon capture projects). The primary security for these loans consists of the project’s assets, including the cash flow thereby generated and the contractual arrangements that ensure the stability of the project’s costs and revenues. This type of structured finance is often deployed in the capitalization of large infrastructure projects that develop new carbon-free energy technology and renewable energy sources or require such energy sources as part of a larger project.
What types of clients do you represent?
We represent developers, private equity sponsors, investors, debtors and creditors, and other major stakeholders in both domestic and cross-border transactions across the globe. Our clients include Google, Breakthrough Energy, Equinor, Morgan Stanley, Nscale, and Blackstone. We also represent newly formed private equity funds and startup developers focused on developing innovative, cutting-edge, and carbon-free energy technologies and solutions.
What types of cases/deals do you work on?
Our clients are involved in high-profile projects involving some of the largest transactions in the global energy and infrastructure sectors. Over the past few years, we have acted as legal advisor in almost 600 transactions that have raised almost $300 billion of limited and non-recourse debt for a wide variety of renewables and conventional power, advanced energy (i.e., geothermal, nuclear, and even fusion), infrastructure (including a market-leading share in the AI-related digital infrastructure sector), rare earth and mining, and other large-scale infrastructure projects. Our expertise extends to asset acquisition, restructuring, portfolio securitization, and political risk mitigation techniques, making for a multi-interdisciplinary practice that plays a vital role in the global energy and digital transition everyone is experiencing.
How did you choose this practice area?
Carolina: Project finance—particularly in the infrastructure, renewables, and energy transition sectors—was a natural fit for my interest in international work. I enjoy working with clients located in or developing projects throughout Latin America (and I appreciate the daily opportunity to speak Spanish and Portuguese!). I also enjoy that by representing infrastructure and energy project developers, we are supporting projects that provide foreign investment and other benefits to the countries in which they’re located. For example, Milbank advised the finance providers for Aeropuertos Dominicanos Siglo XXI, S.A., a subsidiary of Vinci Airports S.A.S., in connection with the operation and expansion of six airports in the Dominican Republic that serve a diverse mix of passengers, contributing to the growth and development of the transportation infrastructure in the country.
Roland: Although my interests were initially focused on litigation, thanks to the exposure gained through the summer program rotation system, I found myself on the team in charge of financing a project that involved the construction and launch of a communications and imaging satellite for a leading global launch services company. The identification and allocation of the risks required in the negotiation and execution of such an endeavor was the ultimate challenge and reinforced my choice of career in the field of energy and infrastructure law. Milbank and its clients put you at the forefront of pioneering innovative technologies. I constantly find myself challenged to think creatively and develop new skill sets to find elegant solutions to complex problems. The skills and sector expertise gained at Milbank allow lawyers to advise clients on bet-the-company transactions both domestically and internationally on a regular basis.
What is a “typical” day like and/or what are some common tasks you perform?
Carolina: Every day is different! Most days include a negotiation with anywhere from 5 to 30 or more people, whether with a group of clients (either developers, financial sponsors or strategic partners, or diverse financing providers), opposing counsel, or local counsel. I also spend time strategizing with my team on deal management and training. Often, our teams are made up of Milbank attorneys across our London, Asia, and São Paulo offices, which adds to the international element of my work. My days are also spent reviewing documents prepared by associates, and we discuss my revisions and their rationale to collectively ensure that the documentation achieves what our client wants and that our deal team understands the reasoning behind it.
Roland: My work day depends largely on the stage of the transactions I am working on at a given moment. One day, I could be advising a developer on the construction risks associated with the development of a fleet of small module nuclear reactors or advising a private equity fund on its investment in the developer of a data center or the power procurement arrangements from it. By its nature, this practice is dynamic and requires one to remain intellectually curious and on top of the latest sector trends. It is not at all unusual to find myself in Santiago, Chile, Oslo, Norway, or London negotiating a transaction, restructuring an existing deal, or speaking at an energy or a digital infrastructure conference—sometimes in the same week!
What training, classes, experience, or skills development would you recommend to someone who wishes to enter your practice area?
Carolina: Fortunately, junior associates are not expected to know how to structure a project finance deal; this is the kind of expertise you will acquire on the job! That said, classes on secured transactions, capital markets, project finance, and restructuring can be helpful in learning the general framework and terminology in these areas of the law. More holistically, a junior associate would benefit from having a detail-oriented focus, good communication skills, and a willingness to ask questions.
Roland: No single path will lead you to a career in the energy and infrastructure finance practice. The group at Milbank comprises talented individuals from diverse academic and personal backgrounds. That said, I would advise seeking out academic exposure in secured transactions and bankruptcy to facilitate developing the skills necessary to analyze, negotiate, and allocate risks properly within the framework of a transaction. Nonetheless, nothing replaces hands-on work experience and client exposure that one gains on a daily basis.
What is the most challenging aspect of practicing in this area?
The best thing about our practice is also the most challenging. You are constantly pushed out of your comfort zone because of the nuances that differ from project to project and client to client. Financing the development and construction of a data center in New Mexico, a hydropower plant in Colombia, or a thermal plant in Malaysia is very different from financing a behind-the-meter fuel cell project in the United States. The practice requires one to stay at the forefront of technology and lead the way as clients venture into new sectors and burgeoning technologies.
What misconceptions exist about your practice area?
We found that the inclusion of the word “finance” in the name dissuades candidates without a business background from inquiring into our practice or gives rise to misconceptions around the scope of what we do. We are equally as likely to find ourselves negotiating a construction and engineering contract, preferred tax equity arrangement, political risk insurance policy, or Mexican fiduciary trust as we are a loan agreement or guaranty. Hands-on experience, client interaction, our professional development programs, and the Milbank@Harvard program provide the finance tools you need to be successful. The name of our practice—the global project, energy, and infrastructure group—signals the breadth of our practice area, ranging from clean energy tech and renewable energy to digital infrastructure, transportation infrastructure, and energy transition. Although our practice is concentrated in the energy and infrastructure sectors, the work within these industries is extremely broad and affords the added challenges of working in different sectors and jurisdictions on cross-border transactions.
What is unique about your practice area at your firm?
The breadth of knowledge that an energy and infrastructure finance attorney must master extends far beyond the legal aspects of a transaction. To make the many complicated aspects of each unique transaction come together, we must have a working knowledge of the technology, industry, and country (including its political environment), as well as the various stakeholders involved in these complex transactions. Energy and infrastructure finance lawyers have to stay ahead of trends and keep track of many dynamic variables, including capital liquidity, global commodities prices, interest rates, advances in technology, geopolitical change, and changes in law. The core skills needed for deal architecture translate across these spaces.
As the power infrastructure around the globe experiences a generational shift in its energy matrix and commodity-based economies face unprecedented challenges, our clients find themselves needing to be nimble and more strategic than ever. We are a vital part of our clients’ environmental, social, and growth strategies.
What are some typical tasks that a junior lawyer would perform in this practice area?
Early in your career, you will find yourself taking control of a particular work stream for a transaction. We tailor our assignments to give associates constant opportunities to expand their skill sets. It is not unusual for junior associates to be interfacing with clients day-to-day, keeping them apprised of relevant action items or answering questions. Junior associates also play a role in risk analysis and mitigating these risks as a component of negotiating and structuring transactions. It’s a skill lawyers will develop throughout their career, and we prioritize providing early exposure. Finally, as a junior associate, you will take the initial attempt at drafting the various types of legal documentation that constitute the supporting framework of a transaction. All of this is done within a supervised environment focused on training but also challenging associates. We all benefit from the firm’s reputation and ability to attract the most complex, world-class, and largest project developments and financings in the world, creating unique learning opportunities for junior associates: We are the premier energy and infrastructure legal services platform in the market.