Practice Areas
Michael advises clients across a range of industries (listed alphabetically), including (most consistently):
• agriculture, forestry and fisheries and land use, with the focus being on sustainable activities and the development of structures and solutions to enable this;
• carbon capture and storage, developing legislation and regulations, procurement of carbon value chain development (including emission capture systems, processing, treatment and transport, and injection and storage), on shore and offshore and advice on government funding support and government to government agreements;
• energy and power (renewable and non-renewable, generation, distribution and transmission, and retail, connected and remote grids), and consistent joint venture and M&A workflows;
• government infrastructure procurement and development, economic and social infrastructure, using all forms of delivery models, including construction, design and construction, EPC, EPCI and EPCM, and PPP;
• hydrogen and hydrogen-based fuel development projects, green, blue and grey hydrogen, ammonia and methanol, and associated joint venture, and procurement and marketing chains;
• iron and steel (green and traditional technologies) whole of project developments, logistics chain developments, procurement and marketing (feedstock procurement and finished produce marketing);
• mining and natural resources (all metals and minerals) project developments, from mine to ultimate use, including value chain developments, procurement and marketing, mine operation and service provision, fleet procurements (mine site, from mine to port, and from port to ultimate destination), and consistent M&A workflows;
• natural gas and LNG, upstream, mid-stream and downstream (and integrated whole of project) development, procurement and marketing, and associated joint operating and joint venture agreements, and advising governments on licensing, concession and production sharing regimes, and participation in petroleum projects of all kinds, and consistent M&A workflows;
• oil, petrochemicals, and refining, production, processing, and refining project development and financing, and associated procurement and marketing;
• ports (air and sea), shipping and trade, and land transport (rail, road and tunnels), infrastructure development and fleet procurement (and associated financing and leasing solutions), and operation, freight and passenger, operation of bulk, container and petroleum product ports, and aircraft and ship procurement and finance, and across all transport chains, terms of carriage;
• waste, developing legislation and regulation, development of all forms of waste management and treatment solutions and technology, from waste arising to recyclables, renewables and residue, including aerobic and anaerobic, container deposit, e-waste and energy-transition waste, landfill, mixed biological, and waste to energy solutions and technologies, and associated collection and disposal services, acting for governments and government agencies and the private sector; and
• water, developing projects to source and to process water to produce potable water (including desalination) and to process and to recycle grey and waste water, the development of storage and transportation systems, acting for governments and government agencies and for the private sector (including as part of energy and power, iron and steel, and mining and natural resources).
Michael has a market leading reputation acting on project and transactional across all sectors. In addition, Michael is a thought leader globally across a number of these sectors, in recent years focusing on climate change, including decarbonization (and all means to achieving it), across these sectors, presenting and writing prolifically. This thought leadership has resulted in engagement at the highest levels of government on development policy settings and implementation through the development and enactment of legislation and regulation, and from this work broad and deep understanding of legislation and regulation relevant to climate change across over 100 jurisdictions.
Michael undertakes a broad range of multi-disciplinary advisory roles, including finance (debt and equity), corporate (including joint ventures, acquisitions and disposals), commercial, construction and engineering, project development and financing (advising on all aspects of project development across all sectors), approvals, and regulated and unregulated markets.
