Cooley launches dedicated Energy, Infrastructure and Real Estate practice group, hiring Baker Botts energy leader Mona Dajani to co-chair
Cooley LLP has created a new Energy, Infrastructure and Real Estate practice group, anchored by the hire of Mona Dajani from Baker Botts, where she led the firm's energy practice. Dajani will co-chair the new group alongside Michelle Schulman, an 18-year Cooley veteran. The move represents a deliberate strategic expansion by Cooley into energy and infrastructure transactional work — a market that has seen significant deal flow as the energy transition accelerates investment in renewables, grid infrastructure, and data centres. Baker Botts is a firm historically synonymous with oil and gas and energy infrastructure work, making Dajani a high-profile signal hire for a firm more traditionally associated with technology and life sciences. The creation of a dedicated group rather than a bolted-on team suggests Cooley is positioning for significant deal volume in the energy and infrastructure space, where project finance, M&A, and regulatory advice converge. The UK and European energy transition — driven by net-zero policy commitments and the need for energy security — continues to generate deal flow that demands exactly the kind of multi-disciplinary capability a combined energy, infrastructure, and real estate group can provide.
Why this matters
Cooley's move reflects a broader arms race among US firms to capture energy transition mandates in Europe and the US. The combination of energy, infrastructure, and real estate under one group is strategically coherent: large-scale energy projects require coordinated advice on project finance, land and planning (real estate), and grid connection or regulatory approvals (infrastructure). Bringing a Baker Botts energy partner — whose client base likely includes major utilities, sponsors, and energy developers — gives Cooley an immediate origination capability in a sector that is generating some of the largest single-matter mandates in the market. The 'why now' trigger is the sustained flow of capital into the energy transition, which has created a supply-demand imbalance for specialist energy transactional counsel.
On the Ground
A trainee in the new group would assist with regulatory filing coordination for energy project approvals, summarise licence conditions attached to grid connection agreements, and support due diligence on IP and technology transfer agreements related to clean energy technologies. They would also assist in drafting planning permission summaries for infrastructure assets within M&A due diligence processes.
Interview prep
Soundbite
US firms building energy practices in 2026 are chasing the single biggest transactional wave in a generation.
Question you might get
“What specific legal workstreams does a major offshore wind project generate, and which practice groups within a Magic Circle or elite US firm would be involved from inception to financial close?”
Full answer
Cooley has launched a new Energy, Infrastructure and Real Estate practice group, hiring Mona Dajani from Baker Botts to co-chair it. This matters because the energy transition is generating some of the largest and most complex mandates in the legal market — spanning project finance, M&A, regulatory, and real estate — and US firms without dedicated energy capability are being frozen out of that deal flow. Baker Botts is a benchmark energy firm, making Dajani a high-credibility hire that signals Cooley is serious about competing for flagship mandates. The wider structural shift is the convergence of tech-sector capital (data centres, battery storage) with traditional energy infrastructure, exactly the kind of work a firm like Cooley — with strong tech credentials — is well positioned to capture. This suggests the energy practice buildout trend among US firms will intensify through 2026.
Sources
My notes
saved