The following is an excerpt from Practice Perspectives: Vault's Guide to Legal Practice Areas.
Cacique Rich-Martinez helps clients close transactions across the energy sector, including wind, solar, geothermal, hydrogen, carbon sequestration, and emerging clean technologies. He advises sponsors, developers, and investors on M&A and joint ventures, with experience from early-stage development to operational portfolios.
Cacique has advised clients on transactions involving utility-scale renewable assets, distributed generation projects, and energy transition technologies that advance decarbonization. He enjoys helping clients balance innovation with commercial execution in one of the fastest-moving sectors of the global economy. Prior to joining Orrick, Cacique served as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. He brings the same discipline and strategic thinking to complex deal work as he did to military leadership.
Describe your practice area and what it entails.
I practice in Orrick’s energy and infrastructure practice group, with a strong focus on transactions that advance the clean energy and clean tech transition. Broadly, the clean tech practice spans any technology or infrastructure that reduces greenhouse gas emissions, increases energy efficiency, or accelerates the shift toward a low-carbon economy. For me, this means advising clients on the purchase, sale, or financing of renewable projects (wind, solar, hydrogen, geothermal, and storage) as well as emerging clean technologies that integrate with these assets.
My daily practice involves structuring and negotiating transactions, drafting key project agreements, and coordinating with specialists on tax, environmental, and regulatory issues. Because clean tech often sits at the intersection of traditional energy, finance, and innovation, our work is both legally complex and commercially dynamic.
What types of clients do you represent?
I represent sponsors of solar and wind portfolios, private equity funds entering joint ventures with clean tech developers, and corporations investing in hydrogen or storage as part of their decarbonization strategies. I’ve helped represent Microsoft, ENGIE, Xcel, Leeward Renewables, BP, Oracle, The Nature Conservancy, CleanCapital, and Superior Plus. The diversity of these clients gives me insight into how different stakeholders view risk and opportunity, which helps our team structure transactions that move deals forward.
What types of cases/deals do you work on?
My work is purely transactional and includes
- Portfolio acquisitions of utility-scale wind, solar, and storage assets, often involving hundreds of megawatts of capacity.
- Tax credit monetization structures under the Inflation Reduction Act, helping investors capture value from pro-duction and investment tax credits.
- Offtake agreements with corporate buyers seeking renew-able energy or clean hydrogen to meet emissions goals.
How did you choose this practice area?
I knew I wanted to work in energy before I began law school. I wanted a practice that combined high-stakes transactional work with broader societal impact. Clean energy and clean tech offered both. The work I do, especially in relation to clean tech, is highly technical, often capital-intensive, and critical to the world’s future. It’s rewarding to know that the work, while commercially rigorous, also supports decarbonization and innovation. I also enjoy how intellectually engaging the work is. The variety keeps me on my toes. One week I may be structuring a joint venture for a solar portfolio, and the next I’m negotiating a divestiture of a geothermal plant.
At Orrick, I found a team deeply embedded in this industry. The firm’s energy and infrastructure platform has long been a market leader, and expanding into new clean technologies was a natural fit. I was drawn to the challenge of working on deals that are simultaneously cutting-edge and foundational.
What is a “typical” day like and/or what are some common tasks you perform?
A typical day might include the following:
- Working with opposing counsel to resolve issues efficiently and keep a deal on track.
- Reviewing diligence on a renewable portfolio, focusing on power purchase agreements, land rights, interconnection agreements, or anything else that might kill the deal.
- Drafting and negotiating a purchase agreement or joint venture agreement.
- Coordinating with specialists on novel tax questions and the latest regulatory risks.
- Advising clients on how new policies or incentives affect deal economics.
Because clean tech deals are multidisciplinary, my work often involves translating between engineers, financiers, and lawyers to ensure everyone’s concerns are addressed.
What training, classes, experience, or skills development would you recommend to someone who wishes to enter your practice area?
Law students interested in clean energy and clean tech transition should build strong foundations in contracts, corporations, secured transactions, and energy law. Transactional Drafting courses are invaluable. Beyond coursework, following developments in energy regulation, tax incentives, and technology trends is critical to understanding how policy and markets interact.
On the skills side, the ability to synthesize technical information and communicate it clearly to non-experts is essential. Clean tech transactions often involve engineers and financiers alongside lawyers, so the lawyer’s role is to bridge disciplines. Above all, people who want to do what I do should develop skills that help them get the deal done rather than slowing the deal down.
What is the most challenging aspect of practicing in this area?
The speed of change. Technology, policy, and financing structures evolve constantly. What worked for a solar project three years ago may be outdated today in the context of storage or hydrogen. Three years ago, tax credit sales didn’t exist. Clients expect you to not only know the law but also anticipate where the market is headed. This requires continuous learning and flexibility—especially in today’s mercurial regulatory environment.
What misconceptions exist about your practice area?
The biggest misconception is that the practice is only about solar and wind. While these remain important, the sector now spans hydrogen, carbon capture, geothermal, and advanced storage, along with cross-cutting issues such as tax credit transfers, energy transition, and corporate sustainability goals. The pace of innovation means the practice is constantly evolving, and lawyers need to be versatile problem solvers, not just specialists in one technology.
Some assume clean tech work is niche or peripheral compared to other transactional practices. In truth, it’s increasingly central to global capital markets and corporate strategy. The energy transition is reshaping entire industries, and clean tech transactions are at the forefront of this change.
How do you see this practice area evolving in the future?
I expect clean tech to become even more interdisciplinary. As technologies such as hydrogen, carbon capture, and advanced storage scale, transactions will require expertise that spans regulatory law, project finance, and M&A—especially when considering cutting-edge technology requiring lots of energy capacity. I also think we’ll see more corporate participation. Companies outside traditional energy are becoming direct players in clean tech as part of the global build-out to support AI data centers and net-zero commitments. This will broaden the kinds of deals lawyers encounter.
International work will grow as well. Supply chains, tax regimes, and offtake markets for clean technologies are increasingly global. Lawyers will need to navigate both U.S. law and cross-border considerations.
The Clean Tech/Renewable Energy practice includes everything from M&A to financing and tax. How do you think this multifaceted practice has helped you grow as a lawyer?
My practice has made me a more versatile and adaptive lawyer. Because each transaction spans multiple disciplines, I’ve learned to move fluidly between M&A drafting, project development diligence, tax structuring, and financing terms. This breadth helps me see the bigger picture in a deal and take a step back when needed to make sure the deal stays on track.