Tawny D. Mack

Tawny D. Mack advises clients on the procurement, development, construction, and operation of complex energy projects. She assists utilities, developers, owners, and other energy-industry participants with managing legal and commercial risk throughout the project lifecycle – from procurement strategy and initial project development through construction, commercial operation, and dispute resolution.

Drawing on substantial experience as both a transactional lawyer and a litigator, Tawny brings a practical, disputes-informed perspective to energy procurement and project development. She works closely with clients’ legal, commercial, technical, procurement, and operational teams to translate complex project requirements into clear and workable contractual frameworks. Her litigation experience enables her to anticipate how negotiated provisions will function during project execution and how they may be interpreted if performance problems or disputes arise.

Tawny advises clients on complex procurements involving capacity resources, utility-scale renewable resources, distributed generation, and energy storage. Her experience includes advising on a historic 10 GW capacity procurement and developing and implementing solicitations for capacity and energy resources and other projects. She assists with procurement strategy, solicitation and contract design, bid evaluation, and project-specific risk assessment.

A highlight of Tawny’s practice is the development and implementation of utility-scale BESS projects, including multiple first-of-their-kind BESS projects utilizing surplus interconnection service. Through her work on these projects, Tawny has developed a sophisticated understanding of issues unique to energy storage, including charging rights and restrictions, telemetry and operational control, efficiency, degradation, and augmentation, as well as emerging strategies for deploying storage more efficiently within existing transmission constraints.

Tawny regularly prepares and negotiates power purchase agreements and other offtake arrangements for a variety of technologies, including combined-cycle and combustion-turbine generation, BESS, solar, and hybrid resources. Her broader transactional experience includes engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) agreements, build-transfer agreements, development transfer agreements, equipment supply agreements, and related construction services. She also counsels clients on contract administration and project issues involving delay, testing, acceptance, change management, default, termination, and remedies.

When disputes cannot be avoided, Tawny represents clients in mediation, arbitration, and state and federal courts. She has handled claims involving breach of contract, professional negligence, construction defects, differing site conditions, delay and disruption, changed conditions, and other issues.

Before joining Smith, Gambrell & Russell, Tawny supported the renewable energy and power business of a global consulting, engineering, and construction company. As part of a four-lawyer legal team, she worked closely with executives, commercial and supply-chain leaders, and project teams on contracting and risk management throughout the project lifecycle. That experience taught Tawny how sophisticated organizations evaluate risk, build internal alignment, and make decisions across legal, commercial, technical, and operational teams. She applies that insight as a practical, solutions-oriented adviser who helps clients manage risk without losing sight of business objectives.

Tawny's Practice

Representative Matters

Transactions

• Serves as transactional counsel to an investor-owned electric utility in connection with its competitive procurements of long-term supply side resources, including a historic procurement of 10 GW of capacity resources.
• Advised on the development and implementation utility-scale battery energy storage systems, including hybrid projects and projects utilizing surplus interconnection service.
• Represented an investor-owned electric utility in negotiating EPC and LTSA agreements for the expansion of an existing generating facility to add approximately 1,400 MW of gas- and oil-fired capacity. Work included advising on complex project delivery, commercial, and risk allocation issues related to the development and long-term operation of significant utility-scale generation assets.
• Assisted investor-owned electric utility with its multi-year coal combustion residual (CCR) asset retirement program. The program primarily involves the construction of environmentally secure landfills, beneficial reuse facilities, or closure-in-place infrastructure.
• Represented EPC contractor in the negotiation of an EPC agreement and related supply chain agreements for numerous utility scale wind and solar projects.
• Represented engineering and consulting firm in the negotiation of a design agreement with a Canadian electric utility related to the modernization of a hydroelectric generation plant.
• Represented a metropolitan transit authority in the negotiation of a construction management agreement for the expansion of a heavy rail station.
• Represented heavy civils contractor in the negotiation of an earthwork and site development contract for a phosphorous mine.
• Represented an international developer in the negotiation of a construction management agreement for a cryptocurrency mining facility.

 Project Counseling

• Advised an EPC contractor in the negotiation of a “reset agreement” with a major investor-owned electric utility in connection with a 128MW wind farm.
• Advised an EPC contractor in preserving, asserting, and successfully resolving cost and schedule claims made across a portfolio of utility-scale solar projects.
• Advised an EPC contractor in the termination and replacement of a major subcontractor working across a portfolio of wind projects (40MW – 128MW) and claims arising from the same.
• Advised civil engineering firm in connection with challenges associated with the civil design of 779-acre solar facility.
• Advised commercial developer through the termination of a general contractor in connection with a mixed-use development.

Litigation/Arbitration

• Represented a national engineering firm in litigation brought by state agency claiming delay and negligent performance of construction-phase services.
• Represented a national engineering firm in litigation brought by a state department of transportation related to the design of a major interstate expansion.
• Represented a civil engineering firm in an action brought by a municipality related to substandard performance of an elevated water tank allegedly caused by design error.
• Represented a national inspection and testing firm in litigation arising from the catastrophic implosion of an industrial autoclave.
• Represented a national architecture firm in action brought by state agency asserting claims of negligent design with respect to the design of convention center renovation.