Sidley hires Winston Taylor infrastructure team as P3 work shifts

Sidley has hired the Winston Taylor infrastructure team, according to the latest P3 Bulletin digest; the headline has no terms, but its direction is clear. A global law firm is building a transport/PPP bench just as the sector's deal flow shifts away from the flagship highway projects that once defined it. The hire is also a remark on the market for P3 lawyers, where talent is consolidating toward global platforms rather than scattering across boutiques.

The same digest maps where the work is going: John Laing has made its debut US water investment, AtkinsRealis has started the US nuclear reactor licensing process, and a Texas rail link is advancing after a feasibility study. Advisors are being sought for a Canadian waterfront development, Ontario is planning transit-oriented engagement sessions, and USDOT is looking to mirror Penn Station at Union Station. Senators have introduced legislation to expand infrastructure financing tools, while MassDOT continues its service plaza P3 progress and Alto opens a market engagement. Tennessee has a winner for its flagship Choice Lanes, but Charlotte's I-77 is still playing for time. The green light for a $290 million Colombia highway P3, a winner for a major Brazil highways concession, and consultants for Panama's public transport decarbonization keep Latin America in the mix, even as Peru continues to drive the region's P3 market. A Squires P3 veteran taking a Washington leadership post rounds out the talent moves. Deal flow is moving to water, transit, and nuclear work, where the political veto points are fewer.

That Sidley is hiring now matters because transport P3 legal talent does not get cheaper while the pipeline is full but the marquee deals are stuck. The I-77 saga, which this publication has covered, is the reason the bet looks shrewd: the project remains stalled, and its political risk has repriced the cost of capital for the next generation of transport concessions. The firms that assemble a bench in this quiet stretch will be the ones with the manpower when the next round of water and transit concessions clears—a wager on the sector's narrowing political risk that Sidley is making early. The hire itself does not move a deal, but it positions the firm to harvest a pipeline that is broadening in every direction except the one that used to get the headlines. The recruits, like the capital, are heading where the politics are calmer. That is the lesson for sponsors too: the firms that bring legal horsepower to the quieter deals will be the ones collecting the next decade of P3 revenue.