Drax lawyer quits for energy newco

AES Drax Power, the UK subsidiary of US energy group AES Corporation, has lost its only in-house lawyer less than a year after he was appointed.

General counsel Yehuda Cohen, who joined the company in May 2003, quit on 1 April to join Foundation Energy, an independent new entrant in the UK wholesale energy markets.

Commenting on his resignation, Cohen said he decided to move because Foundation Energy was set up by a former colleague. “[Foundation Energy] approached me and asked whether I’d like to join them,” he said. “I enjoyed AES some of the time, but at other times I didn’t find it particularly challenging.”
Cohen will initially help Foundation Energy to enter into energy trading contracts and therefore does not currently plan to farm out any work to external lawyers.

Before Drax, Cohen was vice-president and European legal head of energy trading group Dynegy. He left in April 2003 after the company dissolved its four-strong Europe-based legal department. This followed the group’s decision to close its European operations in October 2002.

It is understood that Drax has not yet found a replacement for Cohen.