September 23, 2009 – LawFuel.com – Edward W. Zaelke, managing partner of Chadbourne & Parke LLP’s Los Angeles office, has been named by the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal as one of the Top 100 Lawyers in California for 2009.
This annual ranking by California’s legal press evaluates top California lawyers of all practice disciplines and selects the attorneys standing out as its top 100 in the State. Ed Zaelke was recognized for his stature as one of the nation’s leading project finance and renewable energy lawyers, with the Daily Journal highlighting his role as lead counsel on numerous high profile transactions as well as his role as an industry leader on renewable energy policy issues.
A special supplement listing all 100 honorees was published in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal on September 23rd. A reception celebrating the attorneys named to the California Top 100 list was held on September 22nd in Beverly Hills, California.
This honor by the California legal press follows recognition earlier this year by the highly regarded Chambers & Partners whose annual survey identified Ed Zaelke as one of six “Leading Individuals” nationally in the field of Renewable Energy Law (the list of six also included Chadbourne partners Keith Martin and Todd Alexander). Chambers, which bases its ratings on extensive interviews with attorneys, clients and other significant companies in each industry, stated that Ed Zaelke “is the first name on the lips of wind developer clients.” Chambers & Partners further ranked Chadbourne & Parke as one of only two firms as “Tier 1” for its renewable energy practice on a national level. Chambers also recognized a total of 26 partners at Chadbourne from numerous practice groups in its 2009 publication.
Ed Zaelke began representing wind energy developers in 1990 and became one of a small number of lawyers focused primarily on the wind energy industry when it began its reemergence in 1997. He and other attorneys in Chadbourne & Parke’s Project Finance Group currently represent some of the renewable energy industry’s top companies in the development and finance of renewable energy projects in the United States and abroad.
Ed Zaelke’s presence in the industry has also extended beyond the practice of law. In 2002, he was appointed to the Board of Directors of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). In 2005, he was elected to AWEA’s Executive Committee, and, in 2006 he was elected AWEA’s President (the first lawyer from a major firm to serve as AWEA’s President). Today, in addition to his role as a partner in Chadbourne’s Project Finance Group and Managing Partner of the Firm’s Los Angeles office, he continues to serve on AWEA’s Board of Directors.
