© 2013 The Texas Lawbook.
By Brooks Igo
Staff Writer for The Texas Lawbook
(December 20)–Domestic and international M&A lawyer Roxanne Almaraz joined Bracewell & Giuliani’s Houston office as a partner last week. She lateraled over from Vinson & Elkins.
Almaraz, who has represented clients’ transactional matters in the power and utilities, renewables and midstream and upstream oil and gas sectors, said she couldn’t say no to Bracewell’s entrepreneurial spirit and share enthusiasm to provide outstanding client service.
“The firm continues to expand its global platform,” she said. “It’s exciting to be a part of a leading energy law firm that is willing to pursue growth avenues if and when those avenues make sense.”
The former Vinson & Elkins senior associate said one of the more complex matters she has worked on involved the acquisition by her client, a private equity fund, of half of a power generation facility.
“It was a very interesting exercise to sit around a table and consider the various ways in which an owner of one-half of a power plant could, for better or worse, impact the owner of the other half,” she said. “It was both challenging and rewarding to work with my client to build from scratch a set of joint ownership guidelines that would give all parties the best chance of achieving their respective goals.”
Citing reports last month that the U.S. is now producing more oil than it is importing, Almaraz says clients with global operations will need to design and implement business strategies in a way that gives all due consideration to the disparity between domestic and international production. She also predicts the conversation around the oil export ban to intensify.
Almaraz has represented strategic and financial investors in matters involving more than 60 power generation facilities across North America. A hot issue she anticipates her clients in the domestic power and utilities space will be dealing with in 2014 is an increased focus on the impact of heightened efficiency standards.
At Bracewell, Almaraz hopes to use her recent experience with smart grid infrastructure for the benefit of new entrants in the smart grid and demand response businesses. Additionally, she said she finds large-scale storage technologies fascinating and would love to have the opportunity to work on a battery storage project or two in 2014.
The Stanford Law graduate says she is seeing more women in the international energy M&A space than in the past, though it seems to her to be happening quite slowly.
“Some companies are doing better than others,” she said. “It is encouraging to be able to point to women like Maria das Gracas Foster, the CEO of Petrobras.”
In the community, Almaraz serves on the finance and audit committee of Discovery Green, a public-private partnership between the City of Houston and Discovery Green Conservancy to create and operate an urban park in downtown Houston. She says she is keeping her eyes open for other pro bono opportunities to apply her particular skill set to benefit others.
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