John Sachs is of counsel in the Finance Department of Latham & Watkins' Washington, D.C. office and former Chair of the Global Project Development & Finance Practice. He retired from the partnership in December 2016. Mr. Sachs represented sponsors, lenders, governments, and national utilities in connection with all phases of the development, financing, and acquisition of US and international infrastructure projects, including power projects, oil and gas projects, water projects, and transportation projects. In particular, Mr. Sachs focused on the development, financing, and acquisition of private power projects, including fossil fuel-fired cogeneration and independent power projects, hydroelectric projects, biomass projects, municipal solid waste projects, and other alternative energy projects. His activities included the formulation of competitive bidding solicitations, the structuring of projects and the negotiation of the project agreements, and loan documentation. He has also worked extensively on privatization of the power sector and on the creation and modification of the related regulatory frameworks.
Mr. Sachs represented private sponsors and lenders with respect to the development and financing of infrastructure projects in many countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Mexico, Jamaica, Poland, Russia, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, the Philippines, and Indonesia. He has also advised the governments of Brazil, Colombia, Jamaica, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Kenya, the Philippines, Bulgaria, Poland, Russia, the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Armenia and their national utilities on the establishment of private power programs and new regulatory frameworks. Finally, he has represented numerous companies in the acquisition of electric and gas generation and distribution assets in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Nicaragua, Jamaica, and Pakistan.
In the United States, he represented a variety of private sponsors and lenders. He has assisted clients in the development, financing, and acquisition of projects in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Maine, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, California, Oregon, and Idaho. For many of these projects, he has successfully negotiated all of the project agreements, obtained the necessary regulatory approvals, and concluded the financing.
Mr. Sachs has been top-ranked by Chambers USA since the inception of the publication. He is consistently recommended by The Legal 500 US as one of the nation’s top attorneys in project finance and is highlighted as a "Leading Lawyer" in the 2014-2017 editions.
Mr. Sachs has been named in the 2013 and 2014 editions of The International Who’s Who of Project Finance Lawyers, a list of “the foremost legal practitioners” as identified by Who’s Who Legal through research with general counsel and private practice lawyers worldwide. He is recognized by Best Lawyers 2014 and 2018 as one of the "Best Lawyers in America" in the area of project finance law.