Norton Rose Fulbright hires real estate lawyers, John Young and Christine Fernandez Owen in its Chicago Office

Norton Rose Fulbright hires real estate lawyers, John Young and Christine Fernandez Owen in its Chicago Office

Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) in its attempt to expand and grow in its recently opened Chicago office, has hired a group of seven renewable projects focused real estate lawyers and three support staff.

The seven lawyers include partners John Young and Christine Fernandez Owen, five counsel and an additional three paralegals, who all join from Chicago renewables-focused real estate boutique Clean Law.

The team's practice will focus on advising developers and operators of renewable energy projects in the US and elsewhere. Their experience spans joint ventures, project acquisition and disposals, construction projects and general corporate governance and compliance matters.

Having founded Clean Law in 2017, Young has been president of Firm since then. He was previously a lawyer at Polsinelli in Chicago and also spent 10 years at Bryan Cave, with a three-year stint as associate general counsel at Acciona Energy in between.

Fernandez Owen joined Clean Law in 2019 having worked as an independent renewable energy practitioner since 2017. Prior to that she was assistant general counsel at E.ON Climate and Renewables North America for more than six years and helped develop wind farms for E.ON before that. She started her career in private practice at Haynes and Boone.

The rest of the team include Kacie Bevers, Kayce Kasten Borders, Theresa Carroll, Damola Omisore and Lauren Shapiro, who all join as counsel. Kathy Wenger joins as senior paralegal, alongside paralegals Ali Berry and Kelsei Peppler. While the bulk of the team is based in Chicago, Bevers and Omisore will be based in Houston, Shapiro in Austin and Wenger in Minneapolis.