Fixed Fees to Fuel Green Deals in IRA Tax Credit Boom

AUSTIN, TX – March 04, 2026 – In a move designed to streamline the flow of capital into America’s clean energy transition, national law firm Husch Blackwell and financial platform Reunion Infrastructure have announced a new partnership. The collaboration will offer fixed-fee legal services for the increasingly complex world of renewable energy tax credit transfers, a market supercharged by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

Under the agreement, tax credit buyers who engage both firms for a transaction will gain access to a predictable pricing structure for essential legal services. This includes critical due diligence, the negotiation and drafting of transaction documents, and navigating tax insurance policies—often points of significant cost and delay in the burgeoning green economy.

“This agreement not only drives further collaboration between our firm and Reunion, whom we have worked with since early 2023, but also creates more value, savings, and price certainty for our shared clients,” said Doug Jones, a tax partner at Husch Blackwell, in the announcement.

Reunion Infrastructure, a platform that has quickly established itself as a market leader, has facilitated over $7 billion in tax credit purchases since 2024. The firm’s president and co-founder, Billy Lee, echoed the sentiment of synergy. “We are excited to collaborate with Husch Blackwell, with whom we have worked on multiple successful tax credit transactions spanning a diverse set of technologies with unique due diligence requirements,” Lee stated. “We look forward to creating significant value for our shared clients.”

Navigating the IRA's Multi-Billion Dollar Market

The partnership arrives at a pivotal moment. The IRA’s transferability provision, which allows developers of clean energy projects to sell their tax credits to unrelated corporate buyers for cash, has unleashed a torrent of investment. The market for these transfers surged from an estimated $9 billion in 2023 to a projected $25 billion in 2024. Industry analysts now forecast the total volume of clean energy tax credits could surpass $90 billion annually by 2030, with transferability being the primary mechanism for monetization.

However, this explosive growth has not been without its challenges. The market is fraught with regulatory complexity and evolving guidance from the U.S. Treasury and IRS. Rules concerning “prohibited foreign entities” (PFE) and the specific compliance metrics required have created uncertainty, slowing some deals. Furthermore, the pool of eligible buyers is largely limited to widely held C corporations with sufficient tax liability, creating a competitive and sometimes constrained market.

For investors, these complexities translate into significant transaction friction. The traditional hourly billing model for legal services can lead to unpredictable costs, making it difficult to accurately price a deal and assess returns. This uncertainty can act as a deterrent, potentially stranding capital on the sidelines just as the energy transition needs it most.

A New Model for Legal Services in Clean Energy

The Husch Blackwell and Reunion initiative directly confronts this issue by embracing a fixed-fee structure, part of a broader trend in the legal industry known as Alternative Fee Arrangements (AFAs). Driven by client demand for cost certainty and transparency, AFAs are rapidly gaining traction. Recent industry surveys show that over 90% of large law firms now offer some form of AFA, moving away from the billable hour and toward value-based pricing.

By offering a fixed price for a defined scope of work, the partnership aims to remove a major variable from the investment equation. For a corporate CFO considering the purchase of a multi-million dollar tax credit portfolio, knowing the legal costs upfront is a significant advantage. It simplifies financial modeling, accelerates internal approvals, and reduces the overall risk profile of the investment.

This model is particularly well-suited for the tax credit transfer market, where processes are becoming more standardized yet still require deep subject-matter expertise. The collaboration leverages Reunion's platform to streamline the initial stages of a deal, while Husch Blackwell provides the high-touch legal and tax analysis required to bring it to a secure closing.

De-Risking Deals to Attract Capital

Beyond cost predictability, the partnership is fundamentally about de-risking investments to boost investor confidence. The combined expertise of a leading financial platform and a top-tier law firm creates a powerful value proposition for buyers entering this new market.

Husch Blackwell brings a formidable reputation in the energy sector. The firm's Energy & Natural Resources practice includes over 70 attorneys and is consistently recognized by industry rankings like Chambers USA for its work on renewable energy projects. Their lawyers have guided clients through billions of dollars in project finance, including complex tax equity structures, for some of the nation's largest wind and solar installations.

Complementing this legal firepower is Reunion's proven market dominance. Having facilitated transactions ranging from $10 million to over $1 billion across solar, wind, nuclear, and advanced manufacturing projects, the platform has demonstrated its ability to manage deals at scale. Their hands-on support in due diligence and risk mitigation helps transactions close in an average of less than 45 days.

Together, the two firms offer an end-to-end solution that ensures every aspect of a transaction is scrutinized. This includes verifying the project's eligibility for the credits, ensuring compliance with prevailing wage and apprenticeship rules, and structuring the deal to withstand potential IRS scrutiny, thereby safeguarding the buyer's investment.

The Competitive Rush to Service the Green Boom

The Husch Blackwell-Reunion alliance does not exist in a vacuum. It is a strategic response to a fiercely competitive environment. As the IRA's incentives have taken hold, a host of legal and financial service providers have rushed to cater to the market. Other major law firms like Stinson LLP and Nixon Peabody are actively advising clients on tax credit transactions, and competing financial technology platforms like Crux are building their own marketplaces.

In this dynamic landscape, offering innovative, client-centric solutions like fixed-fee arrangements becomes a key differentiator. The move signals a maturation of the market, where efficiency, transparency, and risk management are becoming as important as the underlying value of the tax credits themselves. This partnership exemplifies the kind of sophisticated collaboration required to unlock the full potential of the IRA's clean energy incentives, accelerating the flow of private capital into the projects that will power the nation's future.