Rob Askew and Svetlana Sorokina-Wilson Join Energy and Infrastructure Practice

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP is pleased to announce the addition of Rob Askew and Svetlana Sorokina-Wilson to its energy and infrastructure practice. Askew and Sorokina-Wilson join the team in London as counsel and senior attorney, respectively. They have significant experience in emerging market energy transactions, particularly with regard to renewable energy projects. Together they have recently advised a major international lender on the financing of two solar projects in Kazakhstan and a hydropower plant and substation in Georgia.

A former lawyer at the firm, Askew returns to our London office after most recently spending two years engaged as a consultant with London-based firm Watson Farley & Williams LLP. Prior to that, Askew spent more than 18 months working within the Office of General Counsel of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, where he was responsible for leading debt and equity deals across a range of sectors and jurisdictions. With a particular focus on emerging markets in Eastern Europe, CIS and Africa, Askew is a corporate finance lawyer with over 20 years’ experience advising on cross-border debt and equity investments, capital markets, M&A and restructuring transactions. Askew is focusing initially on the development of the firm’s IFI relationships and on broadening the debt and equity offering from the London office. Askew received his LPC and CPE degrees from the University of Westminster and his BA Hons degree from London University.

Sorokina-Wilson has more than 10 years’ experience working both in private practice and in-house counsel in Moscow and London. Her practice focuses on cross-border project finance and corporate lending transactions. Sorokina-Wilson advised on award-winning projects in the energy sector and has significant experience assisting international financial institutions and development finance institutions on their investments (equity and debt) in emerging markets in Eastern Europe, CIS, the Middle East and Africa. She received her LL.M degree from Boston University School of Law, as well as her Candidate of Law Science degree and her Diploma of Law from Moscow State University. Sorokina-Wilson is admitted to practice in England, New York, the U.S. and Russia.

Hunton Andrews Kurth’s energy and infrastructure team provides comprehensive finance and development counsel for capital-intensive projects throughout every step of a project, including advising on regulatory approvals and developing project agreements. In the project finance arena, the firm advises commercial banks and institutional lenders, development finance institutions, export credit agencies and project developers with respect to debt and equity issues, M&A transactions and corporate restructurings in both developed and emerging markets around the world.