Shailesh Sahay is a leader on energy transition, climate, and environmental issues, with extensive experience in the liquid fuels, climate technology, energy, manufacturing, carbon capture, and agricultural sectors. His years of experience as an in-house regulatory and policy lawyer allow him to deeply understand client positions and represent them in front of federal, state, and international agencies at the highest levels. He has built robust coalitions across industrial sectors to pursue common interests. Shai’s scientific background and technical acumen allow him to delve into complex issues and serve as an interface between how industry works and the policies that affect businesses.

Shai maintains a robust environmental counseling practice and has engaged in compliance advising, enforcement defense, and regulatory advocacy relating to the Clean Air Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act, the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act (including Class VI permitting), green marketing, and environmental, social, and governance issues, among other topics. His incident response experience includes representing a potentially responsible party in the largest marine oil spill in history. Due to the breadth of his experience, Shai is well positioned to serve as a go-to regulatory compliance and policy advisor to a broad range of industries.

Shai also works closely with transactional and tax attorneys on matters where environmental attributes are central to the value proposition of a deal. These types of agreements involve regulatory programs such as the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard and federal Renewable Fuel Standard, voluntary carbon offsets, and Inflation Reduction Act tax credits such as 45Q (carbon sequestration and utilization), 45V (clean hydrogen) and 45Z (clean fuels).

Shai previously served for over six years as in-house counsel to the largest renewable fuels producer in the world and as acting general counsel of the largest renewable fuels trade association. Prior to entering legal practice, he worked as a staff scientist for an environmental research and consulting firm.