The co-founder of Nike says, “You grow or you die.”
The Texas Lawbook, which is entering its 10th year of operation as an online newspaper for business law and business lawyers in Texas, is committed to growth and improvement.
Today, The Lawbook is pleased to announce that veteran energy reporter Caroline Evans is joining the legal publication as a writer in Houston.
A former writer and editor with two energy industry trade publications, Upstream and Hart Energy, Caroline will cover corporate transactions – M&A activity, CapM, corporate finance and some regulatory matters – for The Lawbook, which now has 13,000 paid subscribers.
Caroline will take over the Corporate Deal Tracker Weekly Roundup and other corporate transactional coverage until Texas Lawbook senior M&A writer Claire Poole, who has stepped away for an extended leave, returns.
A self-described “data nut,” Caroline will also manage the Texas Lawbook’s exclusive Corporate Deal Tracker database, which documents every M&A transaction and CapM fundraiser handled by every lawyer in Texas. Working with Lawbook senior editor Allen Pusey and Claire when she returns, Caroline will take the CDT data we collect and use it to tell stories about trends and developments in the world of corporate transactions.
Caroline said that business journalism is a passion.
“For me, it’s digging through regulatory documents,” she said. “It’s not for everyone, but I could spend hours doing it. Most of the time you’re going to come up with routine filings, but if you’re diligent, you can find what will become the kernel of a really good story.”
The good news is that Caroline is not the only new reporter joining The Texas Lawbook. More details next week.
To allow Lawbook readers to know Caroline a little better, we put some questions to her.
Texas Lawbook: Tell us about your family and growing up.
Caroline Evans: I was born and grew up in a middle-class Houston household. Probably the biggest thing to happen in my young life was my dad getting a job in Budapest after the Cold War ended. It was tough not having him around but we would visit him in the summer, and I got to travel to all these places as a kid that many Americans had not had the chance to go in their lifetimes. The experience really gave me a love of travel and a curiosity about other cultures, and I think it was a big influence in my decisions later in life to be an exchange student in Germany and then to get my undergrad at a university outside the U.S.
Lawbook: Any journalists or lawyers in your family?
Caroline: The only lawyer in my family is a distant cousin in Dallas. Both my parents were English teachers, although my mother did work for the American Bar Association in Chicago for over a decade after she retired from the Houston Independent School District.
Lawbook: What led you to study journalism and later to become a journalist?
Caroline: I was always good at writing and research in school, so I think I always knew I was going to do something that combined those activities. I was a real music nerd in college, so I started writing CD reviews for the campus paper and eventually became one of the paper’s culture editors. I was able to do some freelance after college, but it soon became clear that if I really wanted to have a career in journalism, I’d have to get a degree. So I went back to school, got my master’s and began covering community news for Patch and later Houston Community Newspapers.
Lawbook: What is the best or your favorite article that you have published and why?
Caroline: I think the best work I’ve done has been my coverage of the disputes between Cheniere Energy and a group of Oklahoma landowners over property damage related to construction of the Midship pipeline. I sifted through what easily amounted to hundreds of pages of regulatory and court documents to try and explain what had become a complicated blame game. But the coverage really came to life after I spoke with the landowners about what the damage meant for their livelihoods. They were that human face that is so important to the story, but that I had initially overlooked.
Lawbook: What attracted you to cover the energy industry?
Caroline: I was initially attracted to the global aspect of the energy industry as well as the technological innovation that was taking place. As I got deeper into it, I realized that it was just as rich a mine for stories as any local city hall. You have lots of money, greed, corruption, big egos. But you also have stories of perseverance and adaptation.
Lawbook: What have been your experiences interviewing lawyers and investment bankers?
Caroline: Very little, to be honest, though I did speak to a number of landowner and environmental lawyers when I was covering Midship and several contentious US LNG projects. But I am excited to speak to both lawyers and I-Bankers some more.
Lawbook: What do lawyers and investment bankers need to know about you?
Caroline: Be ready for a lot of questions! I want to be sure I understand everything, especially when I’m just getting started, so I tend to ask a lot.
Lawbook: What advice do you have for law firms and financial advisors if they want to pitch article ideas to you?
Caroline: Familiarize themselves with my beat and what I cover (as well as what I don’t). In these days of social distancing, I am a big fan of the introductory phone call. This helps law firms and financial advisors get to know more about what I cover, and it helps me get to know more about the work they do.
Lawbook: What do you do for fun?
Caroline: These days, it’s a lot of nature walks, playing with my dogs, and cooking. Pre-Covid, it was travel, playing with my dogs, and cooking. One thing that I slacked off on well before lockdown and am looking forward to picking back up is doing long-form improv at Station Theater in Houston. I completed the full one-year course there several years ago and performed in several troupes, and I am really ready to get back up onstage and make a fool of myself again.
Lawbook: What are your three favorite books?
Caroline: It changes every year but right now I’d have to say Yes Please by Amy Poehler, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin.
The Texas Lawbook welcomes Caroline Evans to the team. She can be contacted at caroline.evans@texaslawbook.net.