Ram Sunkara

Practice Areas

Corporate Services | Energy | Renewable Energy | Energy Storage | Energy Restructuring | Energy: Liquefied Natural Gas | Wind Energy | Oil and Gas | Pipelines | Climate Change | Private Equity | Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)

A prolific thought leader and highly sought-after practitioner, Ram has a market-leading practice in representing clients on complex energy transactions both domestically and globally.

As one of the leaders of the firm’s hydrocarbons practice, Ram serves as the go-to counsel for numerous oil and gas clients, ranging from several leading global oil and gas conglomerates to smaller entities in the energy space, on their headline transactions, including domestic and cross-border M&A, decarbonization initiatives and related transactions, energy trading and logistics arrangements, joint ventures, full-scale project development and structured financings.

Ram is also one of the firm’s leaders in the renewable energy practice, routinely advising private equity and hedge funds, infrastructure funds, independent power producers, investment banks and other financial institutions, utilities and corporate offtakers in a wide range of M&A transactions, joint venture arrangements, tax equity investments, virtual and physically settled power purchase agreements, EPC contracts, O&M agreements, project finance and structured trading arrangements. Ram has worked on wind (onshore/offshore), solar, storage, RNG, geothermal, biomass and hydrogen projects. Ram has also become widely recognized as an authority and “go-to” counsel for some of the largest Fortune companies in the world seeking to implement their corporate sustainability and energy efficiency/ESG initiatives.

Education

Career

Ram Sunkara is an attorney in Holland & Knight's Houston and Atlanta offices. Mr. Sunkara has an industry-leading multidisciplinary practice advising clients on complex mergers and acquisitions (both buy- and sell-side processes), joint ventures, tax equity and project finance transactions, project development, build-own-transfer and construction matters, as well as structured commodity hedge transactions across the electric energy, oil and gas, transmission and storage, carbon capture and sequestration, mining and metals, timber, chemicals and natural resource industries.

Mr. Sunkara regularly represents a broad range of energy, timber and industrial sector clients, including renewable energy sponsors and developers, diversified publicly traded companies, electric and gas utilities, independent power producers (IPPs), electric cooperatives, private equity and hedge funds, oil and gas companies in midstream and downstream project matters, commodity trading companies, financial institutions, timber investment management organizations (TIMOs), and chemical and petrochemical producers and other industrials.

Mr. Sunkara's experience spans the entire energy spectrum. In his oil and gas practice, Mr. Sunkara represents clients in upstream oil and gas matters, midstream projects including the acquisition of intrastate and interstate pipelines and a number of underground gas storage facilities across North America, liquefied natural gas (LNG) liquefaction and regasification terminals and related infrastructure, compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling stations and processing facilities, the acquisition and operations of maritime port and rail terminals, crude and natural gas liquids (NGLs) gathering systems and pipelines, and the development and financing of hydrocarbon blending, refined products and processing facilities. Mr. Sunkara has also advised oil and gas clients and financial institutions on gas and crude "prepay" transactions and routinely advises clients on commodity trading transactions effected on master agreements such as International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB) and bespoke arrangements. Mr. Sunkara also has one the leading renewable natural gas (RNG) and responsibly sourced gas (RSG) practices in North America, having worked on dozens of landfill gas, dairy digester, wastewater and coal mine methane capture projects over 20-plus years of practice, and is routinely called upon by clients in the RNG and RSG space to represent them in the largest transactions involving such facilities.

In addition, Mr. Sunkara has extensive experience with the full array of power generation, traditional baseload generation and renewables/energy storage technologies, including wind (onshore and offshore), solar and solar-plus-storage projects, RNG, biomass and cogeneration facilities, hydropower and geothermal projects. In this space, he guides clients through M&A transactions, tax equity investments (sponsor-side and investor-side representations), power purchase agreements (PPAs), engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts, operation and maintenance (O&M) and balance of plant (BOP) agreements, turbine supply (TSAs) and solar panel and related equipment procurement arrangements (including for the procurement of "safe harbored" equipment), purchase and sale agreements for steam, chilled water and other cogeneration offtake contracts, advising on the generation and purchases and sales of environmental attributes, such as renewable energy certificates (RECs), carbon offsets, renewable identification numbers (RINs), and trading agreements involving physical and financially settled purchases (including secured and unsecured hedges), and sales of electric power and related products. He has a market-leading practice advising Fortune and Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE)-listed corporations in achieving their sustainability and other environmental, social and governance (ESG) objectives and project developers globally in the negotiation of physically settled and financially settled renewable power purchase agreements (PPAs and VPPAs), and has been involved in that space from its inception over a decade ago.

Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Mr. Sunkara was the leader of a number of energy teams for a global law firm in its Houston office. Additionally, Mr. Sunkara provides pro bono contractual advice to a charity focused on providing memorable trips for chronically and terminally ill children.

Not yet admitted to Texas Bar; admitted to Georgia Bar only and practicing under supervision of lawyers licensed to practice in Texas.

Professional Memberships

South Asian Bar Association of Georgia (SABA-GA), Board Member

Georgia Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (GIACC)

Georgia Asylum and Immigration Network (GAIN), Member; Board of Directors