It has been announced today that Burges Salmon partner Ross Fairley, who is the firm’s Head of Renewable Energy and Chair of its Net Zero services, has been named in the 2023 Hot 100 list, published by the UK legal sector publication, The Lawyer.
The Lawyer Hot 100, which is published annually every January, recognises the most daring, innovative and creative lawyers from in-house, private practice and the Bar.
Ross is a highly experienced clean energy lawyer and has been advising on EU/UK energy and environmental law for over 25 years. Ross acts for investors, utilities, government and developers on all types of projects and schemes including wind (on and offshore), hydrogen, wave and tidal, solar, geothermal, biofuels, hydro, EVs, Carbon Capture and waste-to-energy.
Over the course of his career to date, Ross has made sure that both he and Burges Salmon have been pioneers in new decarbonised technologies and the UK’s most innovative projects enabling the firm to capitalise as first movers as the technologies become mainstream. In recent years, Ross has focused on establishing and spearheading Burges Salmon’s Net Zero Services to clients using his profile to place the firm at the very forefront of the market.
Net Zero is currently one of the single largest drivers for law and policy, and will continue to be so over the coming decades, for any organisation operating and doing business in the UK. Led by Ross, Burges Salmon’s Net Zero team has been focusing on this important area, which has been a strategic imperative to a wide range of its clients since 2019. Burges Salmon is now one of the ‘go-to’ firms to support clients looking at decarbonisation projects, particularly given the firm’s market-leading expertise in its four identified Net Zero sectors: Energy, Transport, The Built Environment, and Land & Food. This quadrant sector approach has enabled Burges Salmon to differentiate against competitors in the market, advise on strategically significant decarbonisation projects and demonstrate its unique position to take a cross-sector view and facilitate interdependencies between the sectors.
Ross has also taken the lead on Burges Salmon’s Hydrogen practice (with a focus on green hydrogen) and is guiding the firm’s teams advising on a variety of the UK’s most exciting and innovative hydrogen projects. Hydrogen is the most talked about new clean energy source by all political parties and will form the next key area of clean energy generation in the UK. Ross has positioned the firm as the leader in this area and is the elected deputy chair of the UK Hydrogen Fuel Cell Association (UKHFCA).
Ross comments: “I’m very proud and humbled to have been included in The Lawyer Hot 100 list for this year. It’s great to get this recognition but I am very aware that any success I have is almost entirely down to the excellence of Burges Salmon and the team that sit around me…from PAs, to Business Services colleagues, to other members of our teams and of course to fellow partners.”
You can read via this link The Lawyer's Hot 100 profile of Ross.