San Francisco, California – January 2026 — Clean Energy Counsel (CEC), a leading boutique law firm focused exclusively on clean energy, alternative fuels, and sustainable infrastructure, announced the promotion of four attorneys to Partner and eleven attorneys to Counsel. The promotions reflect the firm’s continued growth, deepening leadership bench, and long-term commitment to serving clients across the rapidly evolving clean energy sector.
The newly promoted Partners are Shane Devins, Kristen Berry, Gary Stapleton, and Sandra Lee. CEC also announced its first-ever Counsel class, comprised of Brett Martino, Shae Harvey, Todd Larsen, Sally Huang, Alex Smorczewski, Aretha DiClemente, Anastasia Arsenio, Jonah Brotman, Michael Davey, Brent Schoradt, and Brad Alexander.
“These promotions reflect how far the firm has come and how intentionally it is building for the future,” said Zach Crowley, Partner. “CEC is well-positioned to continue growing alongside its clients and the clean energy industry as a whole.”
A Boutique Built for the Energy Transition
Clean Energy Counsel was founded with a singular focus on the clean energy industry, created to serve developers, investors, utilities, and emerging technology companies navigating the commercial and regulatory realities of renewable and sustainable infrastructure projects. From its inception, the firm set out to offer an alternative to traditional full-service law firms by combining deep sector fluency with practical, transaction-focused legal counsel.
Over the past several years, CEC has experienced sustained and deliberate growth aligned with the accelerating energy transition. Today, the firm consists of 44 attorneys and five administrative professionals, advising clients across the full lifecycle of clean energy projects nationwide. While many firms have expanded through mergers or diversification into adjacent practice areas, CEC has remained purpose-built around clean energy, allowing it to scale while preserving subject-matter depth and continuity of client service.
Compared to larger firms where clean energy practices are often one component of a broader platform, CEC operates as a fully integrated clean energy boutique. Its attorneys routinely compete with significantly larger firms on complex, first-of-their-kind transactions, offering clients senior-level attention, institutional knowledge, and efficiency that reflects decades of collective industry experience.
Partner Promotions Strengthen Core Capabilities
Each of the newly promoted Partners has played a central role in building CEC’s market-leading practice and expanding its capabilities across development, real estate, offtake, financing, and M&A.
Kristen Berry advises renewable energy developers across utility-scale, commercial, and industrial, and distributed generation markets. Her practice spans development-stage and commercial agreements, including power purchase agreements, virtual PPAs and hedging arrangements, EPC and O&M contracts, REC transactions, energy services agreements, equipment supply and build-transfer structures, and EV charging master services agreements. She has helped advance several gigawatts of solar, wind, and energy storage projects nationwide.
Shane Devins focuses on the real estate and land use aspects of renewable and sustainable infrastructure projects. He advises on title and survey matters, entitlements, leasing, acquisitions and dispositions, and the development and financing of large-scale solar, wind, and storage assets. His practice also includes joint ventures, M&A transactions, and cross-border investments, as well as work on sustainable agriculture and water conservation projects.
Gary Stapleton is known for his strategic approach to clean energy transactions, representing developers, investors, and emerging technology companies across solar, wind, battery storage, biomass, and waste-to-fuel projects. He also advises on infrastructure and real estate preservation initiatives and on single-asset and portfolio acquisitions in the United States and internationally.
Sandra Lee represents borrowers, lenders, tax equity investors, and buyers and sellers of clean energy assets. Her experience advising both sponsors and financing parties provides a balanced perspective that informs pragmatic guidance and efficient execution on complex transactions.
“These promotions reflect both the depth of the firm’s talent and the strength of the clean energy industry,” said Brad DeJean, Founding Partner of Clean Energy Counsel. “Promoting four partners at the same time signals confidence in our people, our clients, and the continued growth of the energy transition.”
Inaugural Counsel Class Formalizes Senior Leadership
CEC’s first-ever Counsel class recognizes attorneys who play a critical role in leading complex matters, managing deal teams, mentoring colleagues, and serving as trusted advisors to clients across the renewable energy and sustainable technology sectors.
“This class of Counsel promotions shows the depth of the firm’s senior bench,” said Jordan Dansby, Partner. “Each of these attorneys can lead deals in their respective subject matter areas, train and mentor colleagues, and provide world-class service to clients.”
CEC’s Counsels routinely manage transactions from start to finish, oversee client relationships, and advise on matters spanning development, project finance, M&A, tax equity, offtake arrangements, regulatory issues, and emerging clean energy technologies. Their collective experience allows the firm to handle transactions of any size or complexity with efficiency and strategic insight.
“Our Counsel class consists of attorneys who are dominant in their areas of specialty,” said Kristen Berry, Partner. “Their knowledge and experience make them highly sought after by our clients, and the Counsel title recognizes the leadership they already bring to the firm.”
A Long-Term Leadership Model
The Counsel role at Clean Energy Counsel is designed as a long-term leadership position rather than a mandatory step toward partnership. Some Counsels may ultimately pursue partnership, while others will remain in the role throughout their careers. Each path is equally valued and essential to the firm’s success.
CEC is intentionally not an up-or-out firm. Instead, it emphasizes sustainable growth, mentorship, and professional development, ensuring that clients benefit from stable, experienced teams and that attorneys can build long-term careers aligned with the firm’s mission.
Positioned for Continued Growth
With expanded Partner and Counsel leadership, Clean Energy Counsel enters 2026 with a durable platform built to support clients through the next phase of the energy transition. As projects become more complex and markets continue to evolve, the firm remains focused on delivering technically sophisticated, commercially practical advice grounded in deep industry knowledge.
At Clean Energy Counsel, we devote our legal power to advancing clean energy and a sustainable future. Speeding the world’s transition away from fossil fuels is what we care about most—and we believe this mission is urgent and imperative. It’s where we focus our collected experience, intelligence, and legal acumen. It’s why we’re redefining traditional law firm practices wherever they prove inefficient or self-serving. It’s the reason we prioritize the success of our clients’ projects over all other business considerations.
Clean Energy Counsel provides a full range of legal services to support all types of clean energy projects at every phase in their life cycle—through development, construction, financing, and ongoing operations. We are the only mission-driven law firm focused on speeding the world’s transition to a clean energy future. Advancing clean energy isn’t just our job; it’s our hope for the future.
Clean Energy Counsel
1 Sansome Street,
Suite 1400,
California 94104
2137225384
https://cleanenergycounsel.com
Press Contact : Heather Pierce
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