Eric A. S. Richards

Partner

Eric Richards is a partner in O’Melveny’s Los Angeles office and a member of the Project Development and Finance Practice.  His practice focuses on project finance and infrastructure investment and development. He is also experienced in investment management and fund matters, as well as corporate joint ventures, combinations, and divestitures.

In the project development and finance area, Eric represents sponsors, developers, financial institutions, investors, and others in a range of financing, development and investment-related transactions involving infrastructure assets. He is particularly experienced in transactions involving transportation infrastructure (including airports, ports, rail, and surface transportation projects), the energy sector (including generation and transmission assets, as well as renewable energy projects), and public-private partnerships. He has worked on transactions throughout a majority of the United States, Asia, Latin America, Europe, and Africa.

Eric also has extensive experience in numerous aspects of US securities law, including investment company, investment adviser and broker-dealer regulation at the state, federal, and international levels. Eric’s legal experience in the investment management field includes a four-month in-house assignment with a client’s legal department and the ongoing representation of several US-registered mutual funds with assets in excess of US$100 billion.

Eric is also active in the Firm’s joint venture and corporate combinations practice. His experience in this area includes the representation of a large, multi-national company in the establishment of media-related joint ventures throughout Asia; the representation of another large, multi-national company in a series of divestitures throughout the United States; and the representation of numerous purchasers and sellers of various middle market businesses in the United States (including businesses in distressed situations).

In recent years, Eric served as a member of the Firm’s Policy Committee, a 13-member body responsible for overseeing the Firm’s general affairs and management, and was head of the Los Angeles office’s 100-lawyer Transactions Department.

Professional Activities

Member, American Bar Association; National Bar Association; Los Angeles County Bar Association
Co-Author, "Private Participation in Public Infrastructure Airport Development," Airport Finance and Development (Spring 1999)
Speaker, Airports Council International, Legal, and Finance Conferences; Investment Counsel Association of America
Honors, Top 20 Lawyers in California Under 40 (2000); Project Finance Deal of the Year (1999)
Language, Spanish