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The Texas Lawbook

Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury

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Claire Poole

Claire Poole is a senior writer at The Texas Lawbook, where she covers corporate transactions.

Email Claire

Claire Poole

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.

Energy Finance Lawyer Leaves White & Case for V&E

Mark Holmes is known for counseling sponsors, borrowers and lenders leading project and leveraged finance transactions across traditional and emerging energy and infrastructure sectors.

April 15, 2024 Claire Poole

CDT Roundup: 23 Deals, 14 Firms, 222 Lawyers, $22.6B

We know it’s routine for to push some older deals our way at the end of each quarter. Here at the CDT Roundup we sometimes imagine firms pulling out pockets and searching under seat cushions for league table qualifiers they might have missed. But sometimes in the late-arriving flotsam we find deal work worthy of mention, even though it has appeared on our doorstep a tad late. Such is the case of Justin Hoffman, a partner at Winston & Strawn in Houston, whose work leading more than a few capital markets transactions attracted our attention. We look at a few of those deals and a take in a few observations about his practice along with the usual summaries of last week’s transactions and the lawyers behind them.

April 9, 2024 Claire Poole

SLB Scoops Up ChampionX for $7.7B

Latham & Watkins was the main outside counsel advising SLB while Weil assisted ChampionX. The combination is expected to expand SLB’s presence in the less cyclical and growing production and recovery space.

April 2, 2024 Claire Poole

CDT Roundup: 12 Deals, 8 Firms, 136 Lawyers, $9.3B

The end of Q1 this week suggests a healthy M&A market during the opening round of 2024, with deal volumes rising globally by 26 percent, with the U.S. volumes even high and topping the $400 billion value mark, according to data from Dealogic. Claire Poole examines the deals behind the data in this week’s CDT Roundup and reviews the Easter week action on the Texas M&A front.

April 2, 2024 Claire Poole

CDT Roundup: 18 Deals, 17 Firms, 266 Lawyers, $5.5B

It was an unusual week for M&A, especially energy deals. Not just for the fact that there were so many of them, but for the fact that the flavor of the week was oilfield services. Claire Poole caught up with Gibson partner Gerry Spedale, who led the biggest deal reported last week for his longtime client Dril-Quip, a $1.5 billion merger agreement with Innovex Downhole Solutions. He shared a few insights on what is making energy M&A so attractive these days — and she shares her usual list of Texas-related deals.

March 26, 2024 Claire Poole

CDT Roundup: 23 Deals, 21 Firms, 218 Lawyers, $4.7B

When watching the M&A markets it’s easy to become fixated on billion-dollar deals. But the bread-and-butter transactions of a truly healthy market lie in the middle. Having looked at the high-end last week, the CDT Roundup this week checks out Citizens Financial’s 13th annual survey of CEOs, CFOs and private equity principals which found them warming up to what they see as an economy free of the kind of headwinds that have chilled expectations in recent years. And the data suggests a surge may be in the making as 8 in 10 PE firms see themselves as stronger buyers than they were in 2023. Claire Poole has the particulars along with the usual summary of Texas-related deal activity last week.

March 12, 2024 Claire Poole

EQT Brings Equitrans Back into Fold for $5.5B in Stock

Kirkland advised EQT and Latham assisted Equitrans on the combination, which would create a top vertically integrated natural gas business in the Appalachian region with an initial enterprise value of more than $35 billion.

March 11, 2024 Claire Poole

CDT Roundup: 20 Deals, 19 Firms, 372 Lawyers, $9.1B

Maybe you’ve already noticed, but M&A is buzzing in the first two months of 2024. But the buzz is not just in Texas. At the moment things are buzzing globally and across sectors, according to a report by LSEG Deals Intelligence. Boosted by nine megadeals ($10 billion or more), M&A transactions announced through February were valued at $522 billion, up 75 percent over the same period in 2023. This week’s CDT Roundup takes a look at the fine print in that LSEG report, along with the 20 deals reported by Texas lawyers last week.

March 5, 2024 Claire Poole

IGT Spins Off Gaming/PlayDigital Units to Everi for $2.6B, Creating $6.2B Company

Dallas finance lawyers from Sidley counseled IGT, which plans on using a big chunk of the proceeds to reduce debt and focus on its lottery business.

February 29, 2024 Claire Poole

CDT Roundup: 19 Deals, 12 Firms, 248 Lawyers, $16.4B

Before Houston-based Intuitive Machines landed the first privately funded craft on the moon, they landed a merger partner and a major investor with the help of the Houston office of Latham & Watkins. This week, The Roundup looks back at those deals and the lawyers who worked on them — along with the $16 billion in Texas-related deals reported last week.

February 27, 2024 Claire Poole

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Features

  • P.S. — Hispanic Law Foundation’s ‘Thank You’ is ‘Deeper Than It’s Ever Been,’ President Says at Scholarship Luncheon  - The Dallas Hispanic Law Foundation celebrated its annual Amanecer luncheon, awarding scholarships, internships, and bar study grants to 14 Hispanic law students amid new fundraising challenges resulting from President Trump’s scrutiny of diversity initiatives. Foundation President Andrés Correa expressed deep gratitude to sponsors for their continued support despite donor hesitations. In related legal community news, the San Antonio Legal Services Association recently honored Haynes Boone lawyers for pro bono work supporting a child in a bankruptcy case; former U.S. Attorney Leigha Simonton joined the Texas Council on Family Violence board; and the Houston Bar Association named award winners ahead of its annual dinner, marking leadership transitions and community service achievements. May 9, 2025Krista Torralva
  • Maverick Natural Resources’ Sarah Payne is ‘Like Having a Cheat Code Against the Other Side’ - Sarah Payne went to college and graduate school to be a journalist covering the music industry with the dream of writing for Rolling Stone. Her father, then a Houston trial lawyer, had other ideas. “I was worn down by my tenacious father over the course of two decades,” Payne told The Texas Lawbook. “My entering the profession was likely inescapable. It’s in my veins for better or worse." Payne recently led her employer, Maverick Natural Resources, to a huge courtroom victory after a four-year contract dispute with XTO Energy regarding revenue sharing as part of a joint venture. Citing the jury trial success, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Lawbook named Payne the 2025 Houston Corporate Counsel Award recipient for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department. May 5, 2025Mark Curriden & Jason Philyaw

GCs, Lawyers & Firms

  • Jackson Walker Hires Former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht - Retired Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht has joined the Dallas-based law firm Jackson Walker as a partner in its Austin office, the firm announced Friday. 
  • Trade and Tariffs Specialist Joins V&E
  • Sheppard Mullin Adds Tax/Executive Comp Partner in Houston from Kirkland
  • Troutman Pepper Locke Bolsters Energy Regulatory Practice in Austin
  • GT Taps Bill Katz to Co-Chair Antitrust Practice
  • Sorrels Law Recruits Head of Commercial Litigation Practice
  • Real Estate Veteran Nick Buehner Returns to V&E as a Partner
  • Dorsey Hires Former Federal Prosecutor Edward Loya
  • Munck Wilson Adds Depth to Corporate Practice
  • GT Bolsters Franchise & Distribution Practice with Cross-Border Adviser Mo Alturk
More GCs, Lawyers & Firms

Lawyers in the News

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Reem Abdelrazik
Doug Bacon
Harry Beaudry
Jonathan Benloulou
Gene Besen
Doug Bland
Jacqui Bogucki
Vera De Brito de Gyarfas
David Buck
Nora Burke
T.J. Campbell
Wayne Chan
Michael Considine
Mogan Copher
James Cowen
Kevin Crews
Samantha Crispin
Dawud Crooms
Shamus Crosby
Clint Culpepper
Brock Degeyter
Nick Dhesi
William Eiland
Austin Elam
Miles Emery
Bill Finnegan
David Gail
Adam Garmezy
Sami Ghubril
Breen Haire
Kim Hicks
J. Dean Hinderliter
Nicole Islinger
James Johnston
Atma Kabad
John Kaercher
Erin Kaufman
Paul Kukish
Thomas Laughlin
Oscar Fernando Leija
Emily Lichtenheld
Rob Little
Ryan Logan
Bryan Loocke
Katy Lukaszewski
Ryan Lynch
Ryan Maierson
Benjamin J. Martin
Madeline McCune
Sean McFarlane
Richard McGee
Sarah McLean
Sameer Mohan
Andrew Monk
Charlie Ofner
Stephen Olson
Joe Orien
Zach Parker
John Pitts
Benjamin Potter
Brendan Quigley
Kevin Richardson
Alex Robertson
Jason Rocha
Julian Seiguer
Mark Sloan
Chad Smith
Lande Spottswood
John Stribling
Vanessa Sutherland
Tanner Sykes
Martha Todd
Michael Vardanian
Thomas Verity
Douglas Warner
Kyle Watson
Luke Weedon
John Wetwiska
Sean Wheeler
Debbie Yee

Firms in the News

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Akin
Baker Botts
Bracewell
Haynes Boone
Holland & Knight
Kirkland & Ellis
Latham & Watkins
Morgan Lewis
Pillsbury
Porter Hedges
Sheppard Mullin
Sidley
Simpson Thacher
V&E
Weil
White & Case
Willkie

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