© 2014 The Texas Lawbook.
By Mark Curriden (December 18) – Enterprise Products, one of the world’s largest oil and gas pipeline companies, has a change at the top of its corporate legal department.
Norton Rose Fulbright announced Thursday that Enterprise’s general counsel and corporate secretary, Stephanie Hildebrandt, is joining the Houston-based law firm as a partner in February.
Meanwhile, Enterprise announced that it has hired Vinson & Elkins corporate partner Craig Murray to replace Hildebrant as the company’s new GC.
The Houston midstream company also disclosed that Pepper Hamilton partner Harry Paul “Hap” Weitzel is its new deputy general counsel and Locke Lord partner Vijay A. D’Cruz is Enterprise’s new head of litigation. The appointments of all three are effective Jan. 5.
Enterprise has witnessed extraordinary growth during the past 16 years. At the time of its IPO in 1998, the company had $715 million in assets. Today, it boasts $41 billion in assets. Enterprise was also in the news earlier this year when a Dallas jury ruled the company had violated a partnership agreement with Energy Transfer Partners in building a pipeline from Cushing, Okla. to Houston. A judge ordered Enterprise to pay $535 million in damages. The case is on appeal.
Hildebrandt joined Enterprise in 2004 as deputy general counsel when the company acquired GulfTerra Energy Partners, a master limited partnership subsidiary of El Paso Corporation. In 2009, she was promoted to general counsel.
“I was ready for a change and this terrific opportunity arose,” Hildebrandt said Thursday in an interview with The Texas Lawbook.
Hildebrandt oversaw extraordinary growth during her decade at Enterprise. She supervised three huge acquisitions for the company, including last’s month’s $4.4 billion merger with Oiltanking Partners, the 2011 purchase of Duncan Energy for $2.4 billion and the 2009 acquisition of Teppco Partners for $3.3 billion.
“I want to use my experience and knowledge with oil and gas MLPs to focus on corporate M&A,” she said.
Hildebrandt said that fluctuating “oil prices will dictate” the amount of energy M&A going forward but that “the need for midstream growth is still there.”
“During her tenure as a general counsel, Stephanie has become well-versed in MLPs, especially in the issuer and special committee arenas,” said Daryl Lansdale, a partner in Norton Rose Fulbright’s San Antonio office and head of the firm’s business law practice section. “She will provide our clients with exceptional insight into the midstream and upstream energy sectors.”
Craig Murray, a former captain in the U.S. Marine Corp., joins Enterprise in January as the general counsel. He joined V&E straight out of law school in 1976 and developed a reputation as a leading corporate finance lawyer for lenders and borrowers.
Lawyers familiar with Enterprise say that Murray has been a long-time senior legal adviser to senior executives at Enterprise.
Vijay A. D’Cruz is a 2000 graduate of the University of Houston Law Center. He joined Locke Lord that same year in the firm’s commercial and energy litigation section.
© 2014 The Texas Lawbook. Content of The Texas Lawbook is controlled and protected by specific licensing agreements with our subscribers and under federal copyright laws. Any distribution of this content without the consent of The Texas Lawbook is prohibited.
If you see any inaccuracy in any article in The Texas Lawbook, please contact us. Our goal is content that is 100% true and accurate. Thank you.