Jake Storms

Jake is a transactional attorney whose practice includes real estate acquisitions and dispositions, land and site control, project development and leasing.  He is a member of the Real Estate and Renewable Energy Development team.

Real Estate Development

Jake represents developers, lenders and investors across a broad-range of real estate development projects, including residential, commercial, mixed-use, healthcare, schools, military base redevelopment, mitigation and conservation (both banking and turn-key) and energy.  He frequently advises clients on complex title and survey issues, subsurface oil, gas and mineral matters and regularly drafts and negotiates ground and office leases (including medical office buildings).

Renewable Energy

Jake is an experienced energy attorney advising developers, lenders and tax equity investors on a broad range of renewable/alternative energy projects, including some of the largest utility-scale solar installations in California and across the United States.  Jake negotiates ground leases, easements and other site control documents, as well as title/survey and loan documents for distributed generation facilities (including carport and rooftop solar), community choice aggregation (CCA) projects and utility-scale installations for the solar, wind and geothermal sectors.      

Purchase/Sale of Utility Scale Solar Projects:

• Represented buyer as real estate, permitting, and environmental counsel in purchase of 700MW PV facility in Nevada.
• Represented seller as real estate counsel in sale of 150MW PV facility in Arizona.
• Represented seller as real estate counsel in sale of 1GW phased PV facility in Kern County, CA.

Represented numerous national and international developers, as real estate counsel, on over 20GW of renewable energy projects in the past seven (7) years, including:

• Represented developer with development, construction financing, tax equity investing, and debt term conversion for a 200MW PV generating facility in Fresno County, CA and a 113.5MW battery storage facility in San Bernardino County, CA.  
• Represented developer with development, construction financing, tax equity investing, and debt term conversion for a 165MW PV generating facility in Kern County, CA. 
• Represented developer with development, construction financing, tax equity investing, and debt term conversion for a 500MW phased PV generating facility in Kern County, CA.
• Represented developer with development, construction financing, and tax equity investing for a 200MW PV generating facility in Texas.
• Represented developer with development, construction financing, and tax equity investing for a 101MW wind generating facility in Texas.
• Represented developers with integrating BESS (<1GW) into operating Solar PV facilities including subsequent construction and tax equity investing.
• Represented syndicate of national and international lenders, as local real estate counsel, with construction financing for a 50MW PV generating facility in Sacramento County, CA.
• Represented various landowners (CA State Agencies, Healthcare providers, Shopping Center Owners, and C&I Developers) in implementing solar (rooftop, carport, and ground mount) into new and existing developments, including drafting and negotiating solar leases and power purchase agreements/energy services agreements.
• Represented healthcare provider in developing first-of-its-kind fully islanded micro-grid in Merced County, CA. 

Honors & Recognitions

Northern California Rising Star, 2019-2020

Professional Affiliations

Advisory Board, California Environmental Law and Policy Center, UC Davis School of Law, 2010 – Present

American Bar Association:

• Native American Resources Committee, 2010 – Present
• Renewable, Alternative and Distributed Energy Resources Committee, 2010 – Present

Bar Association of San Francisco, Napa County Bar Association

Napa County Planning Department Stakeholders Group, 2012 – Present