Rector Law Office
Counsel for
Clean Energy Transition
Rector Law Office provides legal counsel to clients engaged in the development, financing, and implementation of infrastructure that responds to climate realities, supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy. We provide strategic legal support to businesses inventing new models and forming novel partnerships—grounded in project finance principles and a practical understanding of how complex projects are built through the integration of legal, technical, commercial, and policy expertise.
We are based in California—a jurisdiction at the forefront of energy efficiency and climate-responsive policy since the 1970s. As the world’s fifth-largest economy, with a durable commitment to showing the world how to decarbonize, California leads in policy, technical, and business model innovation, as well as clean energy deployment—and remains one of the most strategically important places to invest in clean energy and climate infrastructure.
Why Clients Hire Us
Clients have hired Rector Law Office for creative, commercial, and solution-oriented legal counsel on complex clean energy and climate mitigation projects. Today, as legal and regulatory conditions grow more uncertain, that same experience—paired with adaptability and strategic insight—helps our clients navigate evolving risks with clarity and confidence.
Rates at America’s top law firms have risen to the point that high legal expenses can interfere with the ability or willingness of clients to involve experienced legal advisors—and can become a factor that limits the ability of great projects to move forward. Our approach allows clients to invest in expert and personalized legal support with less financial burden and less risk. This is consistent with our clients’ mission, because it enables them to innovate new business models and offer their products and services more competitively.
Our clients are building new business models that enable companies—often outside the traditional value chain—to participate directly in emissions reduction. These companies see decarbonization as a strategic imperative. Structuring these novel partnerships requires a lawyer who can think strategically and draft precisely. Jeff is known for engaging deeply with technical and policy inputs and translating them into enforceable, commercially viable contracts. I spend enough time with my clients to deeply understand their business—enabling me to deliver strategic legal advice that is both effective and aligned with client values.
Practice Focus
Over the course of his career, Jeff Rector has contributed to the success of solar, wind, and hydro power generation, energy storage, sustainable aviation fuel, livestock- and landfill-based renewable natural gas facilities, off-grid microgrids, energy efficiency, and electrical transmission projects in more than twenty countries.
We support clients across the full lifecycle of clean energy and climate infrastructure projects—including project development, project delivery (engineering, procurement, construction), offtake, project financing, and the purchase and sale of operating assets.
We offer expert counsel on:
Project offtake agreements for the sale of renewable energy, renewable fuels, and associated environmental attributes—including voluntary credits, compliance credits, and GHG emissions reductions credits
Joint venture agreements, shareholder agreements, and LLC operating agreements
Project development and engineering services agreements
Equipment supply and EPC agreements
Limited-recourse secured financings involving commercial banks, export credit agencies, and multilateral development banks
Political risk insurance
Energy and currency hedging instruments
As a California-qualified lawyer working in renewable natural gas and sustainable aviation fuel, Jeff is familiar with book and claim mechanisms and the commercial requirements for generating and monetizing credits under the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard. He has also successfully represented clients navigating environmental permitting in California.
Education
- J.D., Stanford Law School
- Master of Pacific International Affairs, UC San Diego
- B.A., Political Science, UC San Diego
Recognition
- Chambers California Spotlight (2025)
- Legal 500 (2015–2016)
- Chambers Global (2013–2015)
- Chambers Asia Pacific (2012)
International & Emerging Markets Experience
Jeff Rector brings two decades of experience as a cross-cultural dealmaker, contributing to energy and infrastructure projects in more than 20 jurisdictions across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. His transactional work has supported developers, banks, development institutions, and export credit agencies. This includes engagements on large-scale investments in Indonesia, Mongolia, Vietnam, Yemen, and Laos. He spent several years supporting the revision of Mozambique’s energy law—enacted in 2022—with a focus on attracting private investment into the electricity sector. He also led a pilot project that developed a template for privately financed solar water pumps to provide clean drinking water in rural Mozambique.
Jeff works from first principles: identifying project risks—technical, legal, market, credit, operational—and structuring agreements that allocate those risks efficiently. His training in international policy and institutional analysis supports this approach, and his record of successful closings demonstrates its effectiveness.
He has advised on infrastructure and climate finance projects across the Global South, and offers discounted rates for projects delivering clean energy to underserved regions. Jeff is also fluent in Japanese and has advised on U.S.–Japan energy collaborations.
Strategic Counsel in Uncertain Times
The energy transition must not be delayed. While the U.S. federal government abandons its climate leadership and undermines domestic legal certainty, states, cities, and private parties are stepping up to the challenge. We help clients develop durable structures and financing strategies for necessary clean energy and climate mitigation projects.
The Obstacle Is the Way
This firm is grounded in the belief that challenge is not a sign to withdraw, but an invitation to engage more intelligently, more strategically, and more deliberately. In moments of uncertainty, we help clients move forward—turning constraints into design parameters, and adversity into progress.
“The mind adapts and turns round any obstacle to action to serve its objective: a hindrance to a given work is turned to its furtherance, an obstacle in a given path becomes an advance.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 5, Section 20 (Penguin Classics Translation)