Fusion Energy Firm Helion Looks to Hogan Lovells for Top Lawyer

Helion Energy Inc., one of several companies searching for future energy solutions, has hired Hogan Lovells senior associate Sachin Desai as its first general counsel.

Desai, a former law clerk for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, joined Helion last month after spending the past five years at Hogan Lovells in Washington.

Helion spokesman Isaac Steinmetz confirmed Desai’s hire to Bloomberg Law. He said Hogan Lovells has been serving as energy regulatory counsel to Helion, which has received financial backing from prominent investors like billionaire Peter Thiel, the tech venture capitalist and former associate at Sullivan & Cromwell.

Helion, founded in 2013 and based in Everett, Wash., broke ground over the summer on a new fusion technology power plant in its hometown. It said in late June that it had become the first privately held company to exceed 100 million degrees Celsius in Trenta, its sixth prototype fusion generator.

BloombergGreen reported in August that privately held companies focused on nuclear fusion—long considered a holy grail in the fight against the growing climate crisis—in Europe and North America had received $300 million from investors during 2020. That sum represented 20% of all funds raised to date, according to BloombergNEF research.

Helion and Thiel have competition, including Bill Gates-backed Commonwealth Fusion Systems LLC and Jeff Bezos-backed General Fusion Inc., per BloombergGreen.

Steinmetz said Helion’s technology is not cold fusion but rather pulsed non-ignition fusion, which seeks to replicate the energy generated by stars like the sun by smashing tiny particles together to create plasma, an ionized matter akin to gas.

During his time at Hogan Lovells, Desai specialized in nuclear regulatory work and developed an expertise with regard to next-generation nuclear reactors. Before graduating from Harvard Law School, Desai was a strategy consultant at Deloitte for heavily regulated industries like energy, health care, and telecommunications.

Hogan Lovells is one of several law firms that have been retained by Helion as it seeks to expand its operations.

Cooley is doing corporate and real estate work for the company, while Smith Baluch and Dorsey & Whitney are handling intellectual property matters, Steinmetz said.