Edmund “Eddy” Daniels, who has served in a senior leadership capacity at major energy companies and financial firms, has joined Haynes Boone as a partner in the Energy Practice Group.
Daniels was most recently the general counsel and chief compliance officer at Panda Power Funds, a private equity firm focused on development, acquisition and operation of energy projects in the U.S. Prior to that, he was managing director at JP Morgan Chase & Co., where he served as a general counsel for the North American Power & Gas Groups and the Commodities Principal Investments Group in Houston. He also previously served as assistant general counsel for Mergers & Acquisitions and Power Plant Development at NRG Energy, and as a senior counsel at Reliant Energy, Inc. and UBS Warburg Energy.
“Eddy brings in-depth power experience to Haynes Boone, having worked at the highest levels at companies that produce and trade energy worldwide,” said Jeff Nichols, partner at Haynes Boone and co-chair of the Energy Practice Group. “As a long-time consumer of legal services, he also possesses a keen understanding about how to deliver maximum value to clients.”
Daniels said: “I am thrilled to join a firm with so many seasoned and skilled commodity and energy finance lawyers. I look forward to helping Haynes Boone expand its already-strong Energy Practice in Texas, New York, London and other markets.”
During his time at Panda, Daniels advised a family of private equity funds with more than $6 billion invested in seven gigawatts of power generation projects around the U.S focusing on fund formation, equity raising, project development, acquisition and disposition, commodity transactions, and regulatory affairs.
He also executed complex finance transactions, such as secured non-recourse project financings, mezzanine equity loans, and fund-level financings and negotiated joint ventures used to acquire and develop the Stonewall and Hummel projects.
At both Panda and NRG, Daniels focused on energy asset and commodity transactions, with an emphasis on joint ventures to build power generation facilities and gas pipelines. At JP Morgan Chase, he led a team of legal professionals advising the firm in connection with structured commodity transactions including acquisition and disposition of trading books, power generation facilities, gas transport and storage facilities, tolling agreements and load service arrangements.
At NRG Energy, he was responsible for negotiating offtake arrangements, engineering and procurement contracts and development agreements in connection with development of new combined-cycle generating facilities in Texas and California. He also advised on the planned expansion of the South Texas Nuclear Project including joint venture agreements with Toshiba Corp., leading to co-investment by Toshiba and significant vendor financing by Toshiba in the nuclear development joint venture.
Daniels has advised various other companies in the energy space as inside counsel and a private practice attorney.
He received his juris doctor from the University of Texas School of Law, where he was the articles editor for the Texas Law Review.
After law school, Daniels clerked for the Hon. Melinda Harmon on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas and the Hon. Edith Jones on the U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.
The following publications reported on Daniels joining the firm:
Law360 (Subscription required)
SparkSpread (Subscription required)
The Texas Lawbook (Subscription required)