A Debevoise & Plimpton practice group co-leader has joined Norton Rose & Fulbright in its New York and Vancouver offices, where he will co-lead its North American infrastructure practice.

Douglas Buchanan spent more than five years at Debevoise. He was senior counsel and the co-head of the global infrastructure and project finance group, working with about four other lawyers in the group. Previously, Buchanan spent about 29 years, including six as managing partner, at Davis LLP, a Canadian firm that combined with DLA Piper in 2015.

Licensed to practice law in British Columbia and Ontario, he consults on legal issues in New York.

At Norton Rose, Buchanan, working with infrastructure co-heads Doug Fried in the U.S. and Greg Lewis in Canada, will help oversee a group of about 25 lawyers in its U.S. and Canadian infrastructure practices. Norton Rose said Buchanan, who lived in Japan for six years, has also been tapped to help expand the firm's Japanese client practice in the U.S. and Canada.

Buchanan, 68, officially joined Norton Rose this month as senior counsel. He said he had no interest in becoming a partner at Debevoise or Norton Rose and signing up for the obligations that entails. “I just wanted to dedicate myself to the business of infrastructure,” he said.

“If I was 45 or 50 and had 20 years of runaway ahead of me, that would be a different story,” he said, adding his role at Debevoise and now at Norton Rose has been to pass on intellectual capital to other members and use connections in the industry to develop business of the practice.

He said his departure from Debevoise was amicable and that he left because he and the firm had different “timetables.” The time that it would take to help build the practice at Debevoise may have been longer than he was practicing at the firm, he said.

He said he also looked forward to joining a firm with a presence in both New York and Canada, where he has family. “This platform was more appropriate for my circumstances,” Buchanan added.

Buchanan said his practice is focused both on the development side of public-private partnership infrastructure projects, including negotiation, maintenance and financing, and the M&A side of the practice, including the buying and selling of interest in infrastructure assets. He represents developers, construction and engineering companies, pension funds and insurers.

While many firms focus on the M&A side, fewer firms focus on development, he said, adding, in his opinion, “you can't really do a proper job on the M&A side if you don't have the knowledge that comes working on the development side.”

The development pipeline slowed down a couple of years ago, due to the anticipation of massive infrastructure legislation by the Trump administration and tax legislation, Buchanan said. But he said projects have begun picking up due to more clarity around the federal government's intentions in infrastructure.

Buchanan explained it's clear there “not going to be a $1 trillion” spent on infrastructure, but the federal government is targeting various programs and areas, such as water projects.