Lisa A Cottle

Practice Areas

Lisa Cottle is a partner in the Real Estate, Energy, Land Use & Environmental Practice Group in Sheppard Mullin's San Francisco office, and a member of the Energy, Infrastructure and Project Finance Team.

Lisa’s practice focuses on energy project development and regulatory matters in the electric power industry. She is recognized by Chambers USA, The Legal 500, Lawdragon, and Best Lawyers in America as a leading practitioner in these areas. Testimonials in these publications include: “She is incredibly responsive, a creative thinker, and very persistent in finding and developing the right answer;” and “She has a deep knowledge of how utilities approach negotiations and how to get power purchase agreements approved.”

Lisa has extensive experience with electricity generation, storage and transmission projects, including negotiating power purchase agreements (PPAs) and the full range of project contracts, obtaining key permits and regulatory approvals, and supporting project finance transactions. Her PPA experience includes energy sales and purchases, capacity and resource adequacy agreements, tolling agreements, and storage agreements. She has experience with a broad range of projects, including solar, battery energy storage, geothermal, wind, biomass, and natural gas. She handles wholesale and retail transactions for sellers and buyers.

Lisa also has extensive energy regulatory experience. She represents energy companies and project developers in regulatory proceedings before administrative agencies, particularly the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and the California Energy Commission (CEC). She represents developers of transmission projects in obtaining certificates of public convenience and necessity (CPCNs) and permits to construct (PTCs) from the CPUC and in compliance matters. She has obtained CEC certification for large thermal projects in California. Her permitting experience includes review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).