Samuel Edmund Saunders

Sam Saunders is a Partner in the Firm’s Banking and Credit Practice. Based in New York, he advises private equity and strategic investors, developers and lenders on the development and financing of energy and infrastructure projects and businesses. His practice spans the lifecycle of energy and infrastructure development and finance—from early-stage joint ventures and governmental arrangements to project development and construction. His work also includes refinancings and project and portfolio acquisitions, as well as dispositions and contentious, distressed, restructuring and bankruptcy matters.

Sam’s practice includes advising clients on commercial bank facilities, private credit, private placements (144A and 4(a)2 notes), ECA, MLA and Department of Energy financings, mezzanine and borrowing base facilities, tax credit monetizations, structured and common equity. He has advised on a wide range of U.S. and international projects, including renewable power (solar, onshore and offshore wind), battery storage, EVs, CCUS, hydrogen, data centers, towers, fiber, conventional power, manufacturing, transmission, RNG, LNG, pipelines, petrochemicals, water and mining.

Notable experience prior to joining Simpson Thacher includes advising:

• Blackstone Infrastructure Partners in its approximately $1 billion investment in a portfolio of wind and solar projects with NextEra Energy Resources
• KKR on a development financing facility for Avantus, a U.S. developer of large utility-scale solar and solar-plus-storage project
• The sponsors on numerous LNG project financings in the US, Canada, Africa and Asia
• BlackRock and several other sponsors on borrowing base facilities for renewables and battery storage portfolio companies
• Tiger Infrastructure, CBRE and several other sponsors on private placements and bank facilities for digital infrastructure assets, including data centers, towers, fiber and wireless
• Developer of a CCGT project on an equipment financing from a private credit lender
• Borrower of a construction warehouse for EV vehicles and infrastructure from a private credit lender
• Borrower in a project financing of three RNG projects provided by a private credit lender
• A private credit lender to a water infrastructure company with an international portfolio of water projects
• Chevron New Energies in its acquisition of a controlling interest in the ACES Delta, LLC joint venture, which is developing a green hydrogen project in Utah financed by a Department of Energy loan guarantee
• The borrower in an approximately $1 billion project financing of a gas gathering and CCS project
• Golden Triangle Polymers Company in the project financing of a $8.5 billion integrated polymers facility in Texas
• Advice to various mining project companies and their sponsors on debt and equity financing, offtake and host government arrangements and dispute resolution

Sam earned his J.D. from Stanford Law School. He earned his Ph.D. and M.S. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering with distinction from the University of Virginia. He is admitted to practice in New York.