© 2013 The Texas Lawbook.
By Mark Curriden
Senior Writer for The Texas Lawbook
March 31 – The moment Ron Kirk announced in January that he was leaving the Obama Administration, he became one of the most sought after international dealmakers in the country.
On Monday, Kirk officially joins Los Angeles-based Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, an 1,100-lawyer firm with 18 offices around the globe. The former Dallas mayor will be senior counsel in the firm’s Dallas office but is expected to play a key role in major corporate mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and other deals around the world.
“The law is what I’ve been trained to do and Gibson Dunn is a great platform for me to use my talents and expertise,” Kirk said in an exclusive interview with The Texas Lawbook.
“Many Gibson Dunn clients face the very global business issues that I’ve worked on during my time at USTR,” he said.
Kirk is the second high-profile Texas public official in as many months to join a major law firm. In February, former U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison joined Bracewell & Giuliani as senior counsel.
Kirk said he chose Gibson Dunn, which reported more than $2.8 million in profits per partner in 2012, because the law firm aggressively pursued him by showing how he could help its clients in Texas and around the world.
“There’s no lawyer in America who has more global business and government contacts and more experience and knowledge about putting together large and complex deals than Ron Kirk,” said Rob Walters, who is managing partner of Gibson Dunn’s Dallas office.
“Ron has government and business leaders around the world on speed dial, and he gets results,” said Walters, who previously worked with Kirk when they were partners at Vinson & Elkins.
Kirk will jump into client matters immediately, according to Walters, who said the firm has clients, including a Japanese industrial provider and a sovereign wealth fund, that “need Ron’s expertise right away.”
“Republicans and Democrats, big business and labor groups – all have great respect for Ron because he’s honest and straight-forward,” said Walters. “Ron is one of the few people who can tell you that you are dead wrong and you accept it.”
While at V&E, Kirk played a significant role advising private equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and TPG Capital in their $45 billion leveraged buyout of TXU Energy in 2007. Records show that Kirk lobbied state and federal officials on behalf of Energy Future Holdings.
Kirk said he will spend 60 percent of his professional time working for Gibson Dunn, which is why he will be a senior counsel instead of partner. He plans to join a few corporate boards later this year. He said he has no plans to be a lobbyist.
“Most Texas and U.S. companies today find themselves sitting across the table negotiating with an international corporation that is owned by a foreign government,” said Kirk, who is 59-years-old. “There is much more mixing of business and government in growing economies. I’m not saying it is good or bad – just the way it is.
“As USTR, I’ve gotten to know most of the leaders of the G-20 – many of them on a personal basis in small conference rooms sitting next to the president,” he said.
Kirk went through four passports in four years, averaging about 32 trips annually.
Those experiences and contacts will make Kirk a hot commodity for businesses seeking to do international deals, according to Texas-based corporate general counsels.
“What Ron Kirk brings to a matter is not his day-to-day legal skills but his ability to open doors to potential government and business partners around the world,” said American Airlines General Counsel Gary Kennedy. “GCs will view this as a coup for Gibson Dunn. It certainly raises the firm’s profile in Texas.”
Exxon Mobil General Counsel Jack Balagia agrees.
“I have great respect for Ron. He brings an intimate knowledge of our business, extensive relationships and integrity to the job,” said Balagia. “Ron can do anything he sets his mind to do.”
Balagia, Kennedy and other GCs like one other key part of Kirk’s move:
“He’s actually here, in Texas, and not in New York or Washington, DC, which is a big plus in my mind,” said Murchison Oil and Gas General Counsel Dena Stroh. “As you were telling me this news about Ron, I already started realizing ways he could help us.”
Kirk received a political science degree from Austin College in Sherman and a law degree from the University of Texas.
“When I came out of law school, I was a street lawyer,” he said. “I had no ambitions to be a big corporate lawyer. In fact, I almost pooh-poohed the idea.”
In 1981, Kirk went to work for then-U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas, which started his career in politics. He later served as Texas Secretary of State for then-Gov. Ann Richards and then spent seven years as mayor of Dallas. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate against John Cornyn in 2002. Throughout this time period, he was a partner at Dallas-based Gardere Wynne Sewell.
In 2009, Kirk was nominated by President Obama to be the U.S. Trade Ambassador – a position he held for nearly four years.
Kirk said he told the president a year ago that he was planning to leave after the end of the first term. He said the USTR job cost him more than $300,000 out of pocket for housing in Washington, DC and personal travel back and forth to Dallas to be with his family.
A couple Fortune 200 multi-national corporations tried to lure Kirk to join them as executive vice president, but the businesses required that he relocate to New York. He preferred returning home to Dallas.
A handful of large and prominent law firms, including Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, Bracewell & Giuliani and Vinson & Elkins, also engaged Kirk about joining their practices.
“These are all excellent law firms, but Gibson Dunn was clearly the best fit for me and my talents,” said Kirk.
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