Profile
Aaron Atcheson practices in the area of business transactions and energy projects law. He is a partner in the London office of Miller Thomson and Chair of the National CleanTech Practice Group.
Aaron has experience representing parties on all sides of transactions and projects in the area of renewable energy, including developers and power producers, turbine manufacturers, solar panel and associated equipment manufacturers, debt and equity providers, underwriters, vendors and purchasers of projects and consultants. Aaron has also provided design and construction advice on district energy, landfill gas, bio-gas, energy-from-waste, hydro-electric, gas-fired thermal power generation, co-generation, natural gas production, gas pipeline and gas storage projects, as well as transactions related to water testing and treatment and waste and recycling.
Aaron regularly provides advice on the applications for, transfers and amendments of environmental approvals, as well as regulatory requirements in respect to project developments. He advises clients on the purchase and sale of real property, leasing and financing transactions and the development of real property including brownfields. He has significant experience in the office, retail and industrial property sectors.
Aaron is a member of the Canadian Wind Energy Association and the Canadian Solar Industries Association and has provided advice on projects in Canada, the United States and the Republic of Ireland. Aaron previously practised in the Toronto office of another national firm in the areas of commercial real estate, environmental, and energy law. He also spent one year in Dublin, Ireland practising project finance law with Matheson Ormsby Prentice, European Business Law Firm of the Year, 2002, with a concentration on environmental law and the energy sector.
Recent files include involvement in over 120 industrial-sized solar rooftop projects, the development and sale of several industrial-sized wind farm projects, addressing environmental issues as part of a significant property divestiture program, and the financing of a series of industrial and commercial complexes. Aaron also represented the vendor on the sale of the world’s largest offshore wind farm prospect, which when fully built out will have a nameplate capacity of 4400 MW, producing enough electricity to power 2 million homes.
Education
- LL.B., McGill University, 1998
- B.A., Honours Economics & Political Science, University of Western Ontario, 1995
Community Involvement
- Member, Terry Fox Run, London Organizing Committee
- Member, Ireland-Canada Chamber of Commerce
Memberships
- Member, Canadian Bar Association
- Member, Ontario Bar Association
- Member, Law Society of Upper Canada
- Member, Middlesex Law Association
- Member, London Chamber of Commerce
- Member, TechAlliance
- Member, Executive of Environmental Law Section, Canadian Bar Association (Ontario)
- Member, Executive of National Resources Law Section, Canadian Bar Association (Ontario)
- Member, Real Property Law Section, Canadian Bar Association (Ontario)
- Member, National Brownfields Association
- Member, Canadian Wind Energy Association
- Member, Canadian Solar Industries Association
Presentations
- Uncertainty in Renewables, HazMat Magazine, September 2011
- Environmental Considerations on Energy and Infrastructure Projects, Ontario Bar Association - Environmental/Natural Resources Sections Breakfast, June 2011, London
- Solar & Energy Storage Advancements, Wind, Sun and Energy Storage Conference, April 2011, London
- Green Buildings: Problems and Solutions with Drazen Bulat, Miller Thomson Breakfast Seminar, March 2011, Cambridge
- FIT to be Tied; Ontario’s Environmental Review Tribunal, Canadian Wind Energy Association Annual Conference, November 2010, Montreal
- Government Programs and How to Get the Most From Them, Wind, Water, Sun – Renewable Technologies Conference, March 2010, London, ON
- New Opportunities in CleanTech, November, 2009 at client seminars in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Cambridge
- An Update on the Wide Range of Environmental Issues Impacting Commercial Leasing and Building Owners, RealLeasing Conference, September 2009, Toronto
- Renewable Energy and the Carbon Markets, University of Toronto Carbon Finance Conference, October 2009, Toronto
- Getting that Dirty Deal Done: Environmental issues in the purchase and Sale of Real Estate, Ontario Bar Association- Environmental Section Breakfast, April 2009, London
- Clean Tech: The Legal Perspective – Tips, Traps and Opportunities, OnSETT CleanTech Conference, February 2009, Toronto
- A Developing Opportunity for Wind: International and Domestic Carbon Credit Markets, Canadian Wind Energy Association Annual Conference, October 2008, Vancouver
- Legal Issues with Wind Farm Stakeholders: Making Your Wind Farm Marketable, World Wind Energy Conference, June 2008, Kingston
Publications
- Lasting a Lifetime - The ABCs of water infrastructure warranties, WaterCanada, November/December 2011
- Offshore Wind and the Canadian Market: Push and Pull in the New Economy, North American Clean Energy, October 2010
- Ontario Tilting at Windmills as Province Alters Course Midway, Law Times, September 2010
- Ontario Snapshot, Miller Thomson Climate Change Newsletter, June 2010
- To Test or Not To Test: Leasing Times, April 2010
- Ontario’s New Feed-In Tariff – Provincial Content Requirements, GTMA Vantage, December 2009/January 2010
- Ontario’s New Green Energy Act, CleanTech Canada, Fall, 2009
- Ontario’s New Green Energy Act, American Lawyer/Lexpert Leading 500 Lawyers Directory, 2009
Industry Expertise
Key Practice Expertise
Areas of Focus
- Electricity
- Power Generation
- Energy and Natural Resources
- Alternative Energy Generation
- Real Estate Finance
- Waste and Waste Recycling
- Brownfield Redevelopment
Year of Call
- Ontario Bar, 2000