Akin Gump's corporate and securities practice is among the firm's largest, numbering over 150 lawyers firmwide. The group handles a variety of sophisticated corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, international transactions, corporate finance and securities, venture capital and corporate restructuring, and also represents clients on general corporate matters. The firm's public law and policy practice is one of the largest and most diverse in the country. Clients include small businesses, non-profit corporations and Fortune 500 companies in the U.S. and abroad. In 1997, the firm's energy and corporate practices played a central role in restructuring The Caspian Pipeline Consortium in order to finance a $2.2 billion project to build a pipeline from Russia to the Black Sea—the largest privately funded infrastructure project in Russia's history.