Exclusive data collected by The Texas Lawbook’s Corporate Deal Tracker shows that transactions handled by lawyers in the state dropped by a quarter on a volume and value basis last year, thanks to the unpopular oil and gas sector. And 2020 is expected to be much worse given the coronavirus, uncertainty in the financial markets and low oil prices.
Two Deal Lawyers Make Career Moves in Midst of Coronavirus Crisis
Simpson Thacher picks up a former Blackstone managing director while a Texas utility brings on a Kirkland associate as general counsel.
CDT Roundup: 11 Deals, 7 Firms, 33 Lawyers, $11.91B
Two big transactions involving Texas lawyers helped move the value needle last week, despite shaky-looking deals in the rest of the M&A world thanks to the coronavirus.
CDT Roundup: 7 Deals, 7 Firms, 36 Lawyers, $809.8M
Dealmaking among Texas lawyers was way down this past week, thanks to the spreading coronavirus and sliding oil prices. But transactions were already sickly even before the recent COVID-19 fears. Claire Poole explains.
Akin Gump Dallas Attracts Transaction Pair from Haynes and Boone
Ryan Cox was co-head of Haynes and Boone’s capital markets and securities practice while Eric Williams was chief of its M&A practice.
Charlie Beckham Sees ‘No Exit’ – A Lawbook Q&A
Longtime Houston bankruptcy attorney Charlie Beckham at Haynes and Boone lays out the landscape for the avalanche of Chapter 11’s expected in the oil industry thanks to the recent slide in commodity prices.
Energy M&A Experts: ‘A Long Dark Tunnel’
As the markets tumbled this week, The Lawbook’s Claire Poole began polling M&A experts for their take on what the future might hold. Their view was stark for the short term, cautious in the long term and instructive on the lessons that might be learned.
CDT Roundup: 16 Deals, 15 Firms, 70 Lawyers, $2.5B
It was a semi-busy deal week last week for Texas lawyers. But Monday’s stock market collapse – the biggest since the 2008 financial crisis – could be a transaction killer until a clear recovery is underway.
‘A Jarring Wakeup Call’
Pickering Energy Partners’ Dan Pickering offers his views of the turmoil in the oil and gas markets and what it means for dealmaking and bankruptcies in the sector.
‘No Place to Hide for Energy’
Oil prices and energy stocks are plunging, thanks to the coronavirus and Russia refusing to cut production, leading to worries about M&A and new bankruptcies. Observers are calling on companies to work toward generating more free cash flow by lowering spending and cutting production so they can pay down debt – and maybe acquire wounded competitors.