Baker Botts this week announced key leadership appointments across its energy platform.
Elaine Walsh and Carlos Solé have been named co-chairs of the firm’s Global Projects Department; Jon Lobb has been tapped to lead the Tax Department; and Michael Didriksen has been selected as co-chair of the Energy Sector Leadership Committee.
The Texas Lawbook visited with the four leaders and share their comments below, along with recent deals each have handled.
Walsh, who leads the Washington, D.C. office, joined Baker Botts 14 years ago from Kirkland & Ellis and has more than 30 years of energy transactions experience. She also sits on the 12-member Executive Committee and co-chairs the Power practice.
“One of the reasons I joined Baker Botts was the breadth of the [energy] practice,” she said. “We continue growing strength on strength. So much energy work is crossing into technology. Energy clients are becoming technology clients, technology clients are becoming energy clients.”
Walsh said more and more infrastructure plays are on the horizon. “The grid absolutely needs more investment,” she said.
Last year, The Lawbook’s Corporate Deal Tracker Roundup reported Walsh co-led with Samantha Crispin BKV’s $370 million acquisition of Barnett Shale assets from Bedrock Production.
Solé is based in Houston and has served as deputy chair of the Global Projects Department since 2018. He specializes in project development and M&A activity in the LNG, power, and downstream energy sectors. He also emphasized how the convergence of energy and technology – the firm’s core sector – is driving growth.
Solé was on the team that advised Helix Energy Solutions on its $1.4 billion stock swap with Hornbeck Offshore Services in April.
“It’s become increasingly competitive, but what has been consistently differentiated is our industry expertise,” he said. “Texas lawyers are working across geographies. I’m working on five deals right now, only one of them is in Texas.”
Lobb, also based in Houston and a Baker Botts lifer, focuses his practice on cross-border tax planning for large multinational companies and on the tax aspects of complex domestic and cross-border M&A transactions, joint ventures and energy projects. He advised on more than dozen transactions in the first half of the year.
“It’s a great time to be a tax lawyer at Baker Botts,” he said, highlighting tax credits related to clean energy deals and tax advisory work. “The depth of knowledge our transactional lawyers have on all levels of the energy value chain is impressive.”
In June, Lobb helped NCS Multistage with its agreement to be acquired by Weatherford International. Last year, Lobb was on JERA’s $1.5 billion deal for Haynesville Shale assets.
Didriksen co-chairs the Power practice with Walsh and has co-led the New York Corporate and Global Projects practices the last three years. He led the negotiations of a first-of-its-kind agreement to supply carbon-free energy to Google data centers in Virginia and worked with the Baker Botts team on the $6 billion Champlain Hudson Power Express project, which will provide clean energy necessary to satisfy 20 percent of all the energy needs of New York City.
“I can’t think of a better energy platform to be at,” he said. “The future looks bright to me.”