Corporate Litigator Casey Berger leaves Winston for Latham
Berger, a 1996 graduate of UT Law, worked at Winston for 15 years. The corporate litigation veteran called his move to Latham "the next natural step."
Paul Weiss Adds Trent Bridges to M&A Team in Houston
Trent Bridges is joining Paul Weiss in Houston as a partner in the white-shoe firm’s M&A group. Bridges advises companies in energy and infrastructure projects with a focus on midstream oil and gas and has been practicing in Houston since September 2021.
Capital Markets Guru Moves to Paul Hastings
Capital markets veteran Charles Haag has joined Paul Hastings in Dallas from Winston & Strawn. He will focus his practice on CapM transactions, corporate governance matters, securities law compliance and public company advisory work, according to a news release. Also joining the firm in the same practice group as Haag is Justin Reinus in Paul Hastings’ California office.
Dentistry Dreams to Megadeals: Dallas Native Powers AI Infrastructure Gold Rush
Melissa Kalka once imagined herself in a white dentist’s coat, peering into mouths across bicuspids and middle molars.
Instead, now she examines balance and term sheets, drilling into multibillion‑dollar deals for hidden risk and opportunity. A transactional partner at the richest law firm in the world, she has become one of the firm’s go‑to architects for complex, capital‑intensive energy and infrastructure deals.
The Texas Lawbook caught up with her about her upbringing and career and the deals she's leading now.
Catching Up with Kelly Rentzel as In-house Veteran Joins Bradley’s Dallas Office
Bradley continues to expand its presence in Dallas by hiring Kelly Rentzel as counsel in the firm's banking & financial services practice group. A financial services in-house veteran, she brings rare firsthand experience managing internal legal operations, capital markets transactions and complex M&A.
The Texas Lawbook caught up with Rentzel about her move to Bradley, the trends she’s seeing and more.
Fertitta Buys Caesars for $17.6B
Houston-based Fertitta Entertainment added significantly to its gambling and hospitality holdings Thursday, cutting a long-rumored deal for Caesars Entertainment for $17.6 billion in cash and assumption of debt. Guided by general counsel Steven Scheinthal, Fertitta chose White & Case as outside counsel. Caesars tapped both Latham & Watkins and Skadden Arps. Coincidentally, Scheinthal (pictured) is being honored Thursday night by the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook with the 2026 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for General Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department. The Lawbook's Jason Philyaw has more on the deal and the more than 70 lawyers involved.
Exxon Shareholders Approve Texas Reincorporation Plan
Exxon shareholders approved the move to Texas, first recommended in March, with more than 70 percent of shareholders voting in favor.
The move may prove more historical than controversial. While the company's relocation received some opposition, the controversy was nothing compared to Exxon's legal and historical past.
Texas Capital’s Dan Hoverman: The Finance Executive Who Thinks Like a Lawyer
Dan Hoverman built his career by understanding the law and succeeding in high finance, but the Texas Capital executive insists it was never the product of a master plan so much as a habit of following the right mentors at the right moments.
The Texas Lawbook recently sat down with the Kirkland alum to discuss his unique career path, his sports career, the dealmaking environment in Texas and more.
CDT Roundup: A $79 Billion Week, Yet SpaceX Still Steals the Shot
Sixteen deals were reported to the CDT Roundup this week valued at $79.4 billion the second-highest weekly total recorded this year — or, if you prefer, the largest weekly total that didn’t involve SpaceX. Well, not exactly.
That and more in this edition of CDT Roundup.
Gibson Dunn Guides SpaceX on Potential Record‑Shattering IPO
Elon Musk's SpaceX filed a Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday for a much-anticipated initial public offering of its common stock that will trade on Nasdaq and Nasdaq Texas under the symbol "SPCX."
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher is advising SpaceX led by capital markets partners George Sampas in New York and Hillary Holmes, Harrison Tucker and Atma Kabad in Houston. Davis Polk is advising the underwriters.
Less Disclosure, More Questions: Evaluating the SEC’s Semiannual Reporting Proposal
Even if the Securities and Exchange Commission gives public companies permission to report less often, will investors, analysts and lenders actually let them? That is the central question raised by the Commission’s May 5 proposal to allow U.S. public companies to replace quarterly Form 10-Q filings with semiannual reports on a new Form 10-S — the most significant proposed change to the periodic reporting framework since quarterly reporting became mandatory in 1970.
NextEra, Dominion Energy Merge in Stock Swap Valued at $66.8B
NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy announced Monday an agreement to merge in an all-stock transaction valued at $66.8 billion. Kirkland & Ellis advised NextEra with a team led by Zach Savrick and Andy Calder in Houston with David Feirstein, who works from Houston and New York, and Brooksany Barrowes in Washington, D.C. Dominion Energy is being advised by McGuireWoods.
