Jenna McGrath

Primary Focus & Experience

Ms. McGrath focuses her practice on both transactional and litigation work in the energy regulatory space.  She is experienced in navigating complex and technical energy industry matters for project developers, utilities, lenders, pension and sovereign wealth funds, and private equity.

Ms. McGrath represents clients before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), state public utility commissions, and courts in energy regulatory and litigation proceedings. She regularly advises clients on the structuring of energy industry transactions and represents them in merger & acquisition, change-in-control, securities, and ratemaking proceedings before FERC. She has led major diligence workstreams for lenders and investors across large energy and digital infrastructure asset portfolios, and secured regulatory approvals for a broad range of significant energy transactions. Ms. McGrath is experienced in emerging technologies and non-traditional business models including merchant transmission, data center power supply, distributed generation and demand response aggregation, microgrids, and all scales of energy storage.

Prior to joining Milbank, Ms. McGrath worked in the Washington, D.C. office of a global law firm, and as an attorney-advisor in the office of the general counsel at FERC.

Her recent significant representations include:

• Oak Hill Advisors before FERC and advised on transactional matters in connection with the out-of-court restructuring and recapitalization of the Cricket Valley Energy Center, a 1,171 MW natural gas power generation facility in Dutchess County, New York. (named 2025 “Restructuring Deal of the Year” by IJGlobal).
• The lenders on regulatory and transactional matters in connection with the financing of the acquisition by KKR and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board of a 19.9% interest in American Electric Power’s Ohio and Indiana & Michigan transmission companies for $2.82 billion.
• A sovereign wealth fund before FERC in connection with regulatory approvals for its $500 million investment in one of the largest domestic portfolios of independent power assets, with more than 11 GW of generation capacity, and advised on regulatory and transactional matters in connection with the investment.
• Grid United in connection with a multi-billion dollar portfolio of electric transmission projects in-development.
• Switch, Inc. on regulatory and transactional matters in respect of its $4.5 billion project debt financing issuance, which will support a fully leased hyperscale development in Nevada.
• AustralianSuper, Australia’s largest superannuation fund, on regulatory and transactional matters in connection with its $1.5 billion equity commitment to DataBank, to fund the build-out of more than 850 MW of data center capacity across DataBank’s portfolio.
• Fully-integrated energy storage company Fullmark Energy on regulatory, transactional, and tariff matters across a portfolio of utility-scale standalone battery storage projects.
• An independent power producer in a FERC complaint against an RTO/ISO challenging regarding generator interconnection processes, and advised on parallel D.C. Circuit court proceedings.
• Citizens Electric Corporation, a retail cooperative utility and transmission owner, in multi-year FERC litigation, settlement negotiations, and transactional matters in connection with the restructuring of its long-term power supply arrangements, acquisition of $200 million dollars of transmission assets in operation and development, and recovery of regulated electric transmission revenues and incentives.
• Mexican industrial automotive manufacturer in securing Department of Energy Import/Export authorizations to transact as a power marketer in ERCOT, and in negotiating related agreements.
• An international independent power producer in multi-year non-public FERC enforcement investigation, resulting in no action by the agency, and no public proceedings.*
• GridLiance Heartland LLC on FERC matters associated with its entry into the Midcontinent Independent System Operator market as a transmission-only utility.*
• GridLiance West LLC in FERC proceedings and transactional matters associated with its $200 million strategic acquisition of high voltage transmission assets and entry into the California Independent System Operator market as a transmission-only utility.*
• Colony Capital in respect of its partnership with Vantage Data Centers valued at $3.5 billion, including diligence and transactional support on complex transaction structure for investments in hyperscale data center operations in California, Washington State, and Québec.*
• Energy market participants in response to a joint inquiry conducted by FERC and NERC into Texas blackouts resulting from Winter Storm Uri.*

*Matter completed prior to joining Milbank.

Recognition & Accomplishments

Jenna McGrath  is ranked Band 5 for Energy: Electricity: Regulatory and Litigation by Chambers USA. She was recognized as a Law360 “Energy MVP” in 2025, and a “Rising Star” in 2021 and 2022 by The Legal 500 for her work in conventional power.

She is the current president of the Energy Bar Association’s Northeast chapter.