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Paul J. Pantano, Jr. is a partner in the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery LLP based in the Washington, D.C. office. He is a member of the Firm's Management and Compensation Committees. Paul heads the Firm’s Energy and Derivatives Markets Practice Group, where he focuses his practice primarily in the areas of energy, commodities and derivatives law.
Paul represents energy companies, commodity dealers, brokerage firms, trade associations and financial industry professionals in a wide variety of transactional, regulatory and litigation matters. He has considerable experience negotiating and drafting structured commodity and derivative transactions. Paul regularly represents clients in investigations and proceedings before the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and other governmental agencies. He also counsels financial services, energy and association clients on regulatory matters affecting their businesses.
Paul is the Chair of the American Bar Association Committee on the Regulation of Futures & Derivative Instruments. He is a member of the board of editors of the Futures & Derivatives Law Report, and has authored several articles for that and other publications. In addition, he is a frequent speaker at financial and energy industry conferences. Chambers USA ranked Paul as one of the top energy lawyers in Washington, D.C.
He is a member of the Energy Bar Association, a former member of the Executive Committee of the Law & Compliance Division of the Futures Industry Association, and a former member of the Committee on Futures Regulation of the New York City Bar Association. From 1994 to 1997, Paul was an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law School, where he co-taught a graduate law course titled, Regulation of Commodity Futures Transactions. Paul is a member of the Duke Law Alumni Board of Directors.
Prior to entering private practice, Paul was a trial attorney in the Division of Enforcement of the CFTC, where he represented the Commission in numerous civil and administrative enforcement actions.
Paul is a member of the District of Columbia Bar Association.
Representative Experience
Acquisitions
Represented Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary, Merrill Lynch Commodities, Inc. in their acquisition of Entergy-Koch Trading, LP
Represented Morgan Stanley in its acquisition of a portfolio of commodity transactions from El Paso Marketing, L.P., a subsidiary of El Paso Corporation
Represented Barclays Capital in its acquisition of substantially all of Duke Energy North America's multi-billion portfolio of physical power contracts, natural gas contracts and derivatives contracts
Structured Commodity Transactions
Represented Morgan Stanley Capital Group Inc. in negotiating and closing a large, structured natural gas swap transaction with TXU Generation Development Company LLC, an affiliate of TXU Corp.
Represented Morgan Stanley in connection with a series of hedge transactions with LSP Gen Finance Co, LLC, a special purpose vehicle and affiliate of LS Power
Represented Bear Energy, a subsidiary of Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. and a FERC authorized power marketer, in negotiating and documenting a highly structured energy management agreement and other related implementation agreements with LS Power Gen Finance Co., LLC, which with one of its affiliates purchased from Duke Energy Corp. eight power plants located in California, Arizona and New England
Represented Morgan Stanley in negotiating a series of complex agreements with La Paloma, a 1000 MW gas-fired combined cycle generation power plant
Education
Duke University School of Law, J.D., 1980
Trinity College, B.A., 1977 | 