Taite R. McDonald

Taite R. McDonald is an attorney in Holland & Knight's Washington, D.C., office and a member of the firm's Public Policy & Regulation Group. Ms. McDonald focuses her practice at the intersection of innovation and government. She is especially well versed in running complex, cross-government matters with intricate legal, policy and financing components. Ms. McDonald's is highly knowledgeable in several areas, including energy technology commercialization, federal energy procurement, biofuels, cannabis, hemp, innovative U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) contracting, and government grants and loan guarantees.

Ms. McDonald provides counsel to companies of all sizes, from early stage startups to Fortune 100 companies and large utilities. She has successfully represented clients in obtaining government contracts, non-dilutive funding in excess of $1.25 billion, loan guarantees and conditional commitments in excess of $2 billion, and achieving complex policy and legislative objectives. Ms. McDonald regularly plays a pivotal role in assisting clients to overcome gating obstacles and achieve new and innovative legislative objectives for emerging markets and technologies by forging key partnerships with federal agencies, industry, trade groups and other government-facing bodies.

Additionally, Ms. McDonald was selected as a 2019 Holland & Knight Rising Star and is a frequent writer and speaker on topics related to renewable energy, military privatization, cannabis and government finance. She has spoken at dozens of conferences and events, including the Defense Energy Innovation Summit, Association of Defense Communities Advanced Energy Summit, Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference and Power-Gen International Finance Forum. In 2019, Ms. McDonald was named as a Key Player on K Street in Politico’s Essential Guide to Cannabis.