Cleary Gottlieb Brings in Niqui Kohli to Head Energy & Infrastructure Group

Cleary Gottlieb announced today that Raunaq “Niqui” Kohli joined the firm as a partner and head of its Energy & Infrastructure Group. As the lead of this multi-disciplinary group, he will work closely with partners across M&A, private equity, debt finance, real estate, capital solutions, tax, funds and more on cutting-edge energy and infrastructure-related transactions.

He is based in New York.

“The scale of capital flowing into energy and infrastructure is rapidly reshaping our clients’ businesses and creating extraordinary demand for integrated legal counsel with elite experience across disciplines,” said Cleary Managing Partner Jeff Karpf. “Niqui’s arrival marks a pivotal moment in our expansion in this space and brings together the deep experience of our practices to deliver best-in-class solutions for clients’ energy and infrastructure needs.”

Cleary has a long history of advising multinational and domestic corporations, financial sponsors, utilities, banks, sovereign wealth funds, and other financial institutions across the full infrastructure spectrum, including major energy, digital infrastructure, transportation, and construction projects. The firm has played an instrumental role in many first-of-their-kind and major transactions—such as Alphabet’s $4.75 billion acquisition of Intersect Power and the Government of Puerto Rico in seeking to reshape its electricity sector—and has represented Brookfield in a number of significant energy and infrastructure projects worldwide. Cleary has received broad recognition for successful work in this space and is ranked by Legal 500 as a leading firm for Energy Transactions in the U.S. and for Projects and Infrastructure in Latin America.

Ranked by Chambers USA and Chambers Global for his work in energy and recognized as a Law360 Rising Star, Niqui is at the forefront of the market forces transforming the energy sector. He represents technology companies, including hyperscalers, as well as infrastructure and investment funds, utilities, and independent power producers on complex, high-value transactions—from bespoke, multi-gigawatt power supply arrangements for some of the largest data center campuses in the world to multi-state utility and power M&A, minority stake sales, and joint ventures. Before joining Cleary, Niqui was a partner at a large international law firm.

“Niqui’s deep experience will help clients across the most consequential transactions in energy and infrastructure, including those spurred by the AI boom,” said Glenn McGrory, partner and Co-Leader of the Americas M&A group. “He will focus on advising clients on the strategic transactions reshaping the power sector, as well as designing and implementing partnership and power supply structures tailored to fast-evolving industry and regulatory considerations at every level.”

Niqui offers a rare blend of top-tier transactional skill and command of the industry—spanning digital infrastructure, renewables, transmission, storage, and natural gas, including LNG—together with a sophisticated understanding of the changing regulatory frameworks at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and state public utility commissions across the country. This comprehensive transactional and regulatory experience and robust asset class knowledge will add significant value to Cleary’s funds and private equity clients looking to deploy capital today as well as optimize the life cycle of their infrastructure assets.

“Cleary’s global platform and its strength across M&A, the technology sector, debt finance, real estate, capital solutions, and funds makes it the ideal firm to build a best-in-class energy and infrastructure practice,” said Niqui. “The opportunities at the intersection of energy, technology, and capital are enormous, and I am excited to work with colleagues across the firm to deliver integrated solutions for clients navigating this rapidly evolving landscape.”