Brandon Palmen 

Brandon Palmen leads transactions on key tech and energy issues like nuclear power and AI with the biggest names in the business.

Case in point: Cameco Corp., the world’s largest publicly traded uranium company, spent $7.8 billion to buy Westinghouse Electric because the iconic American company now designs and services nuclear reactors globally. Palmen worked with associates around the world where reactors are located to make sure every issue was addressed in crafting the merger.

“You have to be very careful,” Palmen said of his job setting up a new entity so that the clients aren’t opened up to litigation from other parties. “Things have to be very precise and clearly communicated with the intent. Joint ventures are notoriously difficult to pull off operationally and there is always follow-up.”

He also advised Amazon on a deal with automaker Steallantis, which owns Fiat, Chrysler, Maserati and others. The collaboration between Amazon’s digital data streaming and newly designed vehicles is expected to generate $22.5 billion annually.

“I have a software development background and was working at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard when I knew I wanted to do tech law,” Palmen said. “I realized pretty early on that I liked being at the early stage of product development and ownership and not doing litigation.”

On the AI side, Palmen helped the cloud service Snowflake, an Amazon partner, with an expansion. Snowflake acquired the forecasting platform Myst AI, which is used in supply chain management for inventory planning.

He has also worked on deals to generate sustainable jet fuel with Suncor Energy and expedite the recycling of plastics in Asia. With the latter, Palmen created a partnership with recycling company Loop Industries and SK Global Chemical Co. to expand the commercialization of Loop’s technology.

Initially, Palmen was doing transactions for startups, but moved to Covington, where his career took off managing multi-billion dollar deals. About 35% of his practice is devoted to mergers, while the rest involves intellectual property and commercial transactions.

“Huge portions of the deals involve licensing, supply agreements and so forth. Those are the times when I have the most fun. My role is central to the transaction,” he said.

–Tori Richards