The U.S. coal industry is suffering its worst downturn in decades, while coal has been implicated as a major cause of global warming. To tackle both issues, the nonprofit Virginia Conservation Legacy Fund Inc., an affiliate of health care nonprofit Kissito Inc., has an unusual strategy: acquiring mining assets for both conservation and mining. For its first, groundbreaking deal—buying two mines and thousands of acres from bankrupt Patriot Coal—VCLF turned to a team from Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman.

The seeds of the deal were planted in early 2014, when Pillsbury lawyers met with Tom Clarke, VCLF's CEO. According to Pillsbury regulatory head Sheila Harvey, Clarke was interested in combining active mining with massive tree planting and other land reclamation efforts, offsetting carbon emissions and earning carbon credits. Those credits could then be sold—along with the coal—to utilities. Clarke reasoned that even with the industry downturn, coal was not going away anytime soon, and such a plan could shrink the industry's environmental footprint. Any mines not used for mining would be reclaimed by VCLF.

After Patriot Coal filed for bankruptcy in May 2015, Clarke retained Pillsbury. On Aug. 17 VCLF inked a purchase agreement with Patriot to acquire nearly all of the coal company's assets and liabilities that were not already planned for sale to Blackhawk Mining. The deal, which closed in October, includes Patriot's Federal Mining Complex and Corridor G Mining Complex in West Virginia, as well as about $400 million in workers' compensation, state black lung and environmental liabilities.