Kirkland & Ellis Welcomes Prominent Energy & Infrastructure Project Development Lawyer Christopher Peponis

Kirkland & Ellis announced today that Christopher Peponis has joined the Firm as a partner. He joins alongside a group of eight lawyers focused on project development and finance transactions across the energy and infrastructure sectors.

"Chris is a leading lawyer in the energy and infrastructure space, with deep experience advising on global LNG and other complex energy and infrastructure projects," said Jon A. Ballis, Chairman of Kirkland's Executive Committee. "He further strengthens our top-tier energy practice as evolving technologies, shifting regulatory frameworks and sustained investment in infrastructure continue to grow demand across the sector."

Mr. Peponis has nearly 20 years of energy industry experience, both in-house and in private practice, advising sponsors and developers across all phases of energy and infrastructure projects. He has a particular focus on energy transition, decarbonization, gas and renewable energy projects. Mr. Peponis leverages extensive LNG and maritime experience and a chemical engineering background to help clients navigate LNG liquefaction and regasification projects, including greenfield, brownfield, floating and offshore developments. He began his career at Shell, working in Australia, Canada, Europe and the U.S. as a process engineer, commodity trader and in-house counsel.

"Kirkland's market-leading energy and infrastructure platform, combined with its highly collaborative and integrated real assets team, was a natural fit for my project development practice," said Mr. Peponis. "I'm excited to join a group that brings together broad technical and commercial insight to help clients execute increasingly complex, large-scale projects."

Mr. Peponis has been consistently recognized by Chambers USA as a top lawyer in Projects: LNG. In 2023, he was recognized by Law360 as a Project Finance Rising Star. He joins Kirkland from Latham & Watkins, where he was a partner.

Kirkland's global energy and infrastructure practice handles all aspects of infrastructure transactions, ranging from the development, acquisition and financing to the sale and restructuring of infrastructure projects and assets around the world. Combined with its market-leading real estate practice, Kirkland offers a fully integrated real assets platform poised to deliver top-tier legal advice to support the increasing convergence of real estate and infrastructure strategies that many of our clients now pursue across the full investment and asset lifecycle.