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Prominent legal and investigative journalist Allen Pusey is a senior editor and writer at The Texas Lawbook.
Prior to joining The Lawbook, Pusey was the editor and publisher of the ABA Journal, which is the nation’s largest circulation legal publication. Before his decade with the Journal, Pusey spent 26 years as a reporter and editor at The Dallas Morning News, where he was a special projects editor and covered the Supreme Court of the United States.
A former director at the Center for Public Integrity, Pusey brings extraordinary experience and knowledge of the legal industry to The Texas Lawbook. Our readers are now the beneficiaries of his amazing talent as a writer and editor.
You can reach Allen at allen.pusey@texaslawbook.net or 202.669.4398.
Advised by Vinson & Elkins, Plains AA described the deal as a "win-win" transaction for both sides — an attractive cash-out for Plains and the acquisition of strategic Canadian assets by a Canadian company.
After five weeks in a row logging transactions valued at $20 billion or more, deal values finally hit the wall. Of course, part of the reason is that all of the M&A and funding deals involved private equity firms, deals whose terms are often undisclosed. Still, there were only six transactions reported. But the deals that were reported were not without importance.
With the hiring of the former White & Case partner, Paul Hastings has tripled its presence in Texas since January 2024; and the firm's chair, Frank Lopez, tells The Lawbook he is confident that the firm's Texas head count will soon top 100.
Baker McKenzie and K&L Gates advised on the transaction, the second in a week involving Baker Hughes. The Houston-based company is in the process of divesting or streamlining its involvement in non-core businesses.
Yes, the streak is still alive: for five weeks in a row transactions have totaled more than $20 billion. The menu of deals reported last week was heavy on power and energy entrees. There was a $19 billion merger of fluid motion control products. A simpler $4 billion upstream deal. A midstream JV buyout. Another JV formed. And a whole new energy E&P funded with some familiar faces. A deal for emergency power grid infrastructure services. And another for a power plant rehab firm. But there were also some interesting side dishes.
The combination expects to exploit the growing demand in energy and data infrastructure, particularly in the lucrative aftermarket for upgrades in industrial fluid controls. Cravath and Winston & Strawn advised on the deal.
While at Kirkland the capital markets partner worked with such clients as Orix, Marathon Oil, Kimmeridge Texas Gas and Omat Technologies.
The deal adds more than 25,000 royalty acres to Diamondback's Permian inventory and cuts Viper's dividend breakeven to under $20 per barrel WTI. Wachtell, Vinson & Elkins and Gibson Dunn advised on the deal.
The week ending May 31 saw 19 deals reported involving Texas businesses or Texas lawyers. They were valued at $23.4 billion, representing the fourth week in a row reporting transactions valued at a total of $20 billion or more. Last week, we saw 15 deals for $24 billion. And this time last year, there were 12 transactions for $34 billion. And it was a week that was more than usually unusual.
The deal, advised by Skadden and Mayer Brown, involves 105,000 rail cars, a potential 10-year buyout by GATX and a separate purchase of Wells Fargo rail leasing assets.
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