Generally, the energy law bar in Texas is active with lateral movement. But there’s much less action among lawyers who do renewable energy work, even though Texas has more capacity to produce wind power than any other state.

Robert Kinney, president of Kinney Recruiting, said most firms currently hiring in the energy space “are looking to make sure their benches in traditional energy are up to speed. They are not worried too much about alternatives.”

Still, he noted, that’s “not to say that somebody with a good practice comes around, they won’t bite.”

For instance, Norton Rose Fulbright made a move this month by hiring renewable energy partner Becky Diffen and senior counsel Sam Porter in Austin. Both came from McGuireWoods, where Diffen had been chair of the firm’s renewable energy practice. McGuireWoods did not immediately comment on the departures.

In another Texas move, George Humphrey, who does petrochemical and renewable energy project finance work, moved to Thompson & Knight in July as a partner in Houston, coming from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.

Like Kinney, two other recruiters in Texas said they are seeing little demand for the renewables niche.

“Renewables have always been of interest, but there have been so few lawyers who do it that there’s been a dearth of candidates available to grow that practice,” said Lee Allbritton, a principal at  Amicus Legal Search Group in Austin.

Jane Pollard, a co-founder of Momentum Search Partners in Austin, also said she has not seen much demand in the renewable energy area.

Jeremy Sanders, a partner at Chapoton Sanders Scarborough of Houston, which does renewable energy work, said in an email that the firm hasn’t done any hiring in that area this year. He does work in the alternative fuel industry, and said he’s noticed a slowdown of work and potential hiring in the area.

Becky Diffen, a partner at Norton Rose Fulbright in Austin, and Sam Porter, senior counsel.

But Diffen, the new Norton Rose Fulbright partner, said her new firm has one of the largest global renewable energy practices, and she is excited to have those resources at her fingertips to help build the firm’s practice in Austin.

She said the industry is “booming” because of interest in wind, solar, battery storage, waste energy and geothermal.

“Wind is now outpacing coal in Texas, so that is really getting people’s attention and solar is coming up right behind wind,” she said.

Keith Martin, a U.S. co-head of projects at Norton Rose Fulbright, said in a press release that Diffen and Porter bring a lot to the firm because each learned the renewable energy business by working in it—Diffen for a wind developer and Porter for a solar manufacturer and developer.

Chris Reeder, a partner at Husch Blackwell in Austin who does renewable energy work, said most of the hiring he sees in the renewable energy space involves firms adding lawyers with specific experience in practices that may be relevant to developing renewable energy business, such as real estate, permitting, regulatory and interconnection agreements.

“We see firms that are kind of active in certain areas of renewable energy that are trying to expand and have a great scope. We see less of firms that aren’t active at all that are trying to get into it,” he said.

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