It had been a sleepless night for Latham & Watkins lawyers slaving for weeks on the financing end of a $20 billion liquefied natural gas joint venture in Siberia’s far north. Thirty-six hours earlier, on July 16, prompted by reports that Russia was planning to send special forces into eastern Ukraine, the U.S. government had banned American financing of Russian energy giants OAO Novatek, OAO Rosneft and two major state-controlled banks. The sanctions also applied to entities controlled by the four. That included Latham’s client, Yamal LNG, which was 60 percent held by Novatek and which was counting on U.S. dollar-denominated loans to pay for the project.
Addressing scores of deal participants on an international conference line at 7 a.m. on July 18, lead Latham partner (and chairman-elect) William Voge announced that the firm was pulling out. The firm’s hands, he had concluded, were tied.
