White & Case has long been a fixture in Latin America’s infrastructure financing market. In 2025, its ability to anticipate and lead the region’s shift toward renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure set it apart from its peers—and earned it the distinction of Sustainable Infrastructure Law Firm of the Year.
The firm’s work over the past year spanned a broad geographic and sectoral range, but its influence has been most visible in Latin America’s fledgling but fast-accelerating battery storage market.
In Chile, White & Case advised Atlas Renewable Energy on two landmark transactions: the $479 million financing of the Atlas Complex and the $219 million project financing of BESS del Desierto. Both deals broke new ground in demonstrating the bankability of large-scale solar and battery storage in the region.
That focus was no coincidence. “I’m glad we are involved in sustainable energy,” says Chris Hansen, partner at White & Case in Mexico City. “It’s a very important part of the market and it will continue to be so.” He notes that demand is set to increase. Investment in new generation capacity, he argues, will be essential not just to meet the region’s growing energy needs but also to capture new opportunities arising from the artificial intelligence revolution.
“Latin America has an advantageous geographical position to provide clean energy to high-consuming data centers in the United States,” he says. “If Latin American countries are not smart about developing significant additional sources of energy—and that includes the whole gamut of oil and gas, nuclear and other sustainable energy—they are going to fall further behind the rest of the world. And I do not think we can afford to have that happen.”
White & Case has consistently pushed into areas once deemed too novel or complex for the region. In El Salvador, the firm represented the sovereign in the world’s largest debt-for-nature conversion for river conservation—an unprecedented transaction in both scale and environmental ambition. In Colombia, it supported Atlas Renewable Energy’s first project in the country, the Shangri La solar plant in Tolima, expected to generate more than 400 GWh annually. In Peru, it advised Grupo Enhol on the Illa project, the largest solar project in the country to date, with capacity to meet 2.5% of national demand.
The firm’s reach has also extended into large-scale acquisitions and financings. It counseled Banobras and FONADIN on the $6 billion acquisition financing of a 13-plant portfolio sold by Iberdrola in Mexico—one of the largest power M&A transactions in the region. It has been advising Atlas Energía Holding on solar and storage projects in Chile and Brazil, and CAF on a $220 million A/B loan facility for BDMG in Brazil, channeling multilateral and private capital into sustainable projects that support powershoring and energy efficiency.
Even ongoing mandates reflect its forward-leaning approach. White & Case is working with sponsors and banks on hydrogen projects in Paraguay and Costa Rica, a $4.5 billion pulp and paper facility in Paraguay, and renewable financings across Panama and Ecuador. The firm also continues to support wind and solar projects in the Andes, where developers are testing both scale and technology.
The common thread is depth. White & Case has built what is widely regarded as one of the deepest benches of lawyers dedicated to project finance and infrastructure in Latin America, with 10 full-time partners backed by global teams in New York, Washington, Miami, Mexico City, Houston, São Paulo, Paris, London, Madrid and Asia.
Looking ahead, Hansen points to areas of energy policy that still divide opinion but may soon become central. Nuclear energy, he argues, is regaining acceptance. “People are still very cautious about nuclear energy, but it is losing the stigma created about it. I think we will see it grow and develop throughout the region.”