Another two Dallas partners have joined their former Winston & Strawn colleagues at King & Spalding.
Jeff Cole and Brian Jansen were named partners in the finance and restructuring practice group. They both come to King & Spalding after a little more than nine years at Winston, and they also worked together at Squire Patton Boggs in Dallas prior to that. Cole was one of the nearly two dozen lawyers who founded Winston’s Dallas office in February 2017.
In early February, Atlanta corporate law firm King & Spalding expanded its Dallas office by adding prominent trial lawyer Tom Melsheimer, litigator Steve Stodghill and five other partners from Winston & Strawn. A month later, three more Winston litigation partners moved to King & Spalding. The firm now has more than 50 attorneys in Dallas.
Cole and Jansen specialize in leveraged acquisition financings, working capital facilities, expansion and growth financings and recapitalizations. They represent lenders, private equity sponsors and companies across a range of industries.
“Jeff and Brian have practices that align directly with the firm’s core leveraged finance and private credit platform and will help us continue our strong growth in the Dallas market,” according to Carolyn Alford, co-leader of King & Spalding’s finance and restructuring group. “Jeff and Brian are highly experienced, energetic, and collaborative lawyers who will help originate, grow and institutionalize relationships with our clients across the firm.”
Cole said they have shared client relationships with King & Spalding for many years.
“We now have the opportunity to collaborate with our new colleagues to provide even more continuity and depth of service to those same common clients,” Cole said. “Coincidentally, we were afforded the opportunity to reunite with former colleagues who we highly respect. We’re very excited to build upon the firm’s growth in Dallas and we look forward to assisting with the further expansion of the office.”
Cole holds a bachelor’s in business administration, accounting and finance from the University of Arkansas and received a J.D. from the University of Arkansas School of Law in 1988.
Jansen has a bachelor’s in finance from Iowa State University and earned his J.D. from the University of Kansas School of Law in 2011.
In March, Melsheimer and Natalie Arbaugh wrote in The Texas Lawbook about their decision to join the King & Spalding team in Dallas, saying “the number of firms able to compete for the best talent and the best work is small … the truth is there are only a handful of firms that can tout that kind of record credibly. King & Spalding is one.”