Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Claire Poole is a senior writer at The Texas Lawbook, where she covers corporate transactions.
Claire Poole is a business writer based in Houston. She previously was a senior writer at The Deal, where she spent 16 years covering mergers and acquisitions, private equity and investing in the energy sector. Before The Deal, she worked as a reporter and staff writer at Forbes, was editor of El Financiero International and Mexico Business and was a contributing editor at LatinTrade. She also contributed articles to Money, Worth, BusinessWeek and Texas Monthly.
Claire’s email is claire.poole@texaslawbook.net.
In March and April, the market for M&A looked pretty thin. A few high-profile bank failures and strong employment figures fed worries about the future. That pessimism seems to have passed, according to Texas dealmakers consulted by the CDT Roundup. We have their forecasts for the coming months, as well as the usual listing of deals and dealmakers reporting last week.
The deal lawyer's departure follows that of tax expert Greg Nelson, who left last month as 11-year chair of Paul Hastings' Houston office for Gibson Dunn.
The firm's Dermarkar previously advised the private equity firm on deals, including during his tenure at Jones Day.
U.S. buyout and exit deals are seeing double-digit year-over-year declines, fundraising is shrinking and acquisition finance markets have stiffened in the face of interest rate uncertainty, according to Mergermarket. Against that backdrop comes a survey of 100 PE firm executives who are among those searching for places to place an estimated $1.1 trillion in dry-powder cash. In this week’s CDT Roundup, Claire Poole discusses what they see on the investment horizon after 12-18 months of investor caution, along with the names of lawyers involved in last week’s 13 M&A and funding deals.
The transaction, which has been rumored about since last fall, reflects the oil giant's push to expand its low-carbon solutions business.
A new report from Refinitiv suggests that bankers are hurting these days. Investment banking fees are down during the first six months of 2023 — off 18 percent from 2022, year-over-year, and the lowest since 2016. Advisory fees from M&A fared even worse. The culprits include U.S. involved M&A, which has been lagging in both volume and value. The Lawbook's Claire Poole looks at the underlying stats, including a few sectors that have thrived, even during the current lag — and, of course, the usual roll call of deals reported by Texas lawyers last week.
The news last week that publicly traded Civitas Resources was entering the Permian Basin with the purchase of upstream assets for $4.7 billion was interesting beyond its whopping price tag. Both targets were backed by NGP Energy Capital Management, marking another upstream private-to-public consolidation. There are those who think this is a good thing for the industry at the moment, and this week's CDT Roundup explores the reasons. And, as always, The Lawbook's Claire Poole has all the deals reported by Texas lawyers last week.
Kirkland & Ellis advised Vista, which also used the firm when Apptio bought Cloudwiry and when Vista acquired Apptio itself.
Three oil & gas deals moved last week totaling more than $4 billion. They involved Earthstone, Gibson Energy and Patterson-UTI. The apparent strategy behind each deal — not to mention their structure — suggests something different about O&G these days, as well as the current market. The Roundup this week takes a look at each of the deals, as well as the 151 lawyers behind who reported their role in transactions last week.
If FERC clears the transaction, NIPSCO will remain a part of NiSource, which will keep an 80.1 percent stake and continue operating the company. The terms of the deal implies a NIPSCO equity value of $10.8 billion. Latham advised Blackstone and McGuireWoods advised NiSource on the deal. Claire Poole has the details.
© Copyright 2026 The Texas Lawbook
The content on this website is protected under federal Copyright laws. Any use without the consent of The Texas Lawbook is prohibited.