Davis Polk brings on infrastructure finance co-head

Davis Polk has hired infrastructure finance lawyer Elena Millerman to join the firm in New York as a co-leader as it builds out its infrastructure practice.

Millerman joins as partner and co-head of the infrastructure finance group. She was previously at White & Case LLP, where most recently she served as the global head of the project development and finance group.

“Infrastructure practice is a strategic priority for our firm,” said Neil Barr, Davis Polk’s managing partner, in a release announcing the hire. “Elena is a leader in the infrastructure field, with an impressive track record of working on cutting-edge transactions. She represents a very significant addition in the continued buildout of our team.”

Millerman focuses on “sophisticated, high-profile financings in the Americas and internationally, primarily across the infrastructure, power, and oil and gas sectors,” the firm said. “She also has extensive experience with acquisition financings, project bonds and private placements, other debt-structured products, and equity financings.”

Davis Polk’s infrastructure finance group works with infrastructure funds, developers, direct lenders and others on project development, capital market transactions and other financings. Past clients include Brazos Electric Power Cooperative, Inc., which filed for bankruptcy in the wake of Winter Storm Uri, and Pacific Gas and Electric Company as part of its emergence from bankruptcy in 2020.

The hire comes as the firm expects strong demand for the “next generation” of infrastructure finance, which “sits at the intersection of project finance and leveraged finance,” said Jason Kyrwood, co-head of Davis Polk’s finance practice.

“I am energized by the firm’s commitment to and investment in growing its infrastructure capabilities,” Millerman said. “I look forward to collaborating with my fantastic new colleagues to help our clients on their most sophisticated transactions.”