Overview
Annie Tsai is a senior counsel and business lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP. She is a member of the firm’s Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) Team, and the Finance Practice and the Energy Industry Team.
Annie focuses her practice on energy project finance, advising clients in the development, acquisition, and financing of renewable energy projects.
Annie has vast experience in the electric power industry. Before becoming an attorney, Annie worked for Southern California Edison’s Energy Procurement Group. She optimized the utility’s multibillion-dollar conventional and renewables portfolio as a part of the energy trading team. Annie advised negotiation teams on the value and risks of power purchase agreements, resource adequacy capacity contracts, energy call options, and firm energy delivery contracts. She also managed the utility’s California PUC regulatory proceedings related to energy procurement (renewables power, conventional power, natural gas, and greenhouse gas emissions).
Representative Experience*
- Represented, lead lender in syndicated construction, tax equity and term debt financing for community solar project portfolios primarily located in Massachusetts and New York
- Represented, lead lender in syndicated construction, tax equity and term debt financing for utility-scale solar projects in Virginia and North Carolina
- Represented, lender in term debt financing for a portfolio of wind projects in California
- Represented, ESG investor in its investment in an electric vehicle startup company
- Represented, lead lender in syndicated construction and term debt financing for $100 million cold storage project in Idaho with a leading national food producer as key customer
*Certain representations undertaken prior to joining Foley & Lardner LLP
Selected Publications and Presentations
- Speaker, “Renewable Energy Law and Incentives under the Biden Administration,” National Business Institute (April 2022).
- Panelist, “How Community Solar Will Accelerate States Towards Their Renewable Energy Targets,” Women in Cleantech & Sustainability and Women in Energy Greater New York City chapter (October 2021).
- Speaker, “Innovation in Risk Management for Renewable Project Finance, Effective Due Diligence on Large Portfolios as a Key Risk Mitigation Strategy,” Infocast webinar (April 2021).
Education
Annie graduated from Loyola Law School (J.D., 2014), where she was a symposium editor of the Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review. She holds a master’s degree in international economics from the School of International Relations and Pacific Affairs at the University of California at San Diego (M.P.I.A., 2005). Annie earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and government from Cornell University (B.A., 2002).
Publications
Annie authored the article, “The California Cap-and-Trade Program’s Linkage with Quebec: An application of Conflict and Field Preemption,” which was published in the California International Law Journal (Spring 2014).
Admissions
Annie is admitted to practice in California.
Languages
Annie is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.