Patricia Dondanville concentrates her practice on business finance and transactional matters, as well as corporate governance and compliance, with a focus on representing energy industry clients. She handles matters such as structured commercial transactions, corporate governance and compliance policy development, debt financing, derivatives, and M&A transactions, including acquisition of energy contract portfolios.
In recent years, Patty has assisted energy clients, as well as other U.S. and global corporations, with evaluating the impact of the financial reform legislation (Dodd-Frank Act), and related Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and global bank regulations that affect commercial business operations, transactions and corporate development strategies.
Patty has extensive experience representing buyers, sellers, investors, lenders and borrowers in a wide variety of regulated and unregulated industries. This gives Patty the perspective to focus on important transaction structuring and negotiation points, and to propose practical solutions to achieve the client’s business objectives.
Patty represents public and private companies in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and investments. She is also often asked by Reed Smith colleagues and other law firms to assist a deal team with industry-specific experience and advice on transactions that involve regulated U.S. energy companies, energy infrastructure assets, or energy trading contracts.
Patty was actively involved in the legislative process that led to the Dodd-Frank Act. She continues to represent energy companies and trade associations in the Dodd-Frank rulemaking process at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the U.S. banking regulators, and in ongoing legislative efforts to amend the Dodd-Frank Act. She has drafted more than 70 substantive comment letters to the CFTC and other financial market regulators on behalf of energy industry clients.
Patty counsels electric and natural gas utilities and other energy companies and investors in the acquisition and divestiture of, and investment in, infrastructure assets. She advises on the legal, credit and operational risks associated with energy supply transactions, energy marketing and derivatives trading.
Patty has drafted, reviewed and recommended changes to risk management, regulatory compliance and documentation policies and procedures. She has drafted and negotiated a wide variety of energy commodity and derivatives master trading agreements for energy market participants, including regulated utilities, merchant energy companies, banks and other financial institutions, electric cooperatives, and public power entities.
Patty has also documented and negotiated many different and innovative types of credit support arrangements and liquidity facilities for energy market participants, including “right-way-risk” collateralized trading and hedging programs. –
Patty was a principal drafter of the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) Master Purchase and Sale Agreement, the master contract template on which physical electricity and related commodities are traded in the United States.
She was a founding co-chair and continues to work with the EEI Contract Drafting Committee, which develops new energy trading documentation as changes occur in the electric industry. The Committee also assisted the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) in developing its North American Power Annex.
Education :
- University of Virginia School of Law, J.D.
- University of Notre Dame, B.A., magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa
Professional Admissions & Qualifications : Illinois
Professional Affiliations :
- American Bar Association, Infrastructure and Regulated Industries Section Council Group (Chair 2012-2013)
- Women’s Energy Network, Chicago Chapter
- Energy Bar Association
- Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law Annual Ray Garrett Securities Law Institute, Planning Committee
- Notre Dame Club of Chicago Scholarship Foundation Trustee (Foundation President 2011 – 2017)
Cost
Rate : $$$