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SEC Interviews Finalists for Fort Worth Director Job

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is in its final stages of searching for a new regional director. The finalists include two current SEC officials, a former federal prosecutor and a corporate general counsel. A selection is expected by the end of August. The two front-runners are SEC Associate Director Marshall Gandy and former federal prosecutor Shamoil Shipchandler, who is now a partner at Bracewell & Giuliani in Dallas.

“There are some great candidates on the list – no bad options,” says Xerox Senior VP and Group Counsel Clay Scheitzach.

Jones Day and V&E Advise in $20 Billion MLP Transaction

Ohio-based MPLX and its sponsor, Marathon Petroleum Corporation announced Monday their plans to purchase Denver-based master limited partnership, MarkWest Energy Partners. The companies say the transaction, which is valued at $20 billion and includes about $4 billion of debt, will create the fourth-largest MLP based on a market capitalization of $21 billion.

Jones Day and V&E Advise in $20 Billion MLP Transaction

Ohio-based MPLX and its sponsor, Marathon Petroleum Corporation announced Monday their plans to purchase Denver-based master limited partnership, MarkWest Energy Partners. The companies say the transaction, which is valued at $20 billion and includes about $4 billion of debt, will create the fourth-largest MLP based on a market capitalization of $21 billion.

M&A Plummets in Texas during H1 2015

Corporate mergers and acquisitions involving Texas-based companies plummeted 28 percent during the first six months of the year compared to the same period in 2014. Texas businesses participated in 357 mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and joint ventures with a total deal value of $123.3 billion in 2015, compared to 498 such deals valued at $158 billion last year, reports Mergermarket, which produced the data exclusively for The Texas Lawbook.

“Deal-making across nearly all business sectors – health care, technology, industrial, manufacturing and even restaurants – is strong and active,” said Rick Lacher, managing director of the Dallas office of investment bank Houlihan Lokey. “Everybody in our office is busy – not hair-on-fire busy like last year but very active.”

M&A Plummets in Texas during H1 2015

Corporate mergers and acquisitions involving Texas-based companies plummeted 28 percent during the first six months of the year compared to the same period in 2014. Texas businesses participated in 357 mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and joint ventures with a total deal value of $123.3 billion in 2015, compared to 498 such deals valued at $158 billion last year, reports Mergermarket, which produced the data exclusively for The Texas Lawbook.
“Deal-making across nearly all business sectors – health care, technology, industrial, manufacturing and even restaurants – is strong and active,” said Rick Lacher, managing director of the Dallas office of investment bank Houlihan Lokey. “Everybody in our office is busy – not hair-on-fire busy like last year but very active.”

St. Mary Cemetery Lawsuit Goes to Trial

Testimony began Wednesday in the long-simmering St. Mary Cemetery dispute in which plaintiffs allege a landowner desecrated a portion of the historic African-American cemetery in rural Ellis County in order to carve out more cropland.

TX Supreme Court Expands State’s Reputation for Economic Freedom

The Texas Supreme Court, using the state constitution and a case involving eyebrow threaders, expanded the rights of Texans to be free of “unreasonably burdensome” economic regulations. In adopting a new standard of review for measuring business regulations, lawyers involved in the case say the court delivered a ruling to match the state’s vaunted reputation as a frontier of economic freedom.

My Summer Vacation, 800 Years in the Making

The Magna Carta is one of the most influential and important documents in the history of the written word. Traveling nine hours to celebrate a legal document signed eight centuries ago might not be everyone’s idea of a perfect vacation. There was no place I would rather have been. It was a once-in-a-lifetime honor that my family and I will never forget.

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