Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Houston-based American Midstream Partners assistant GC Tom Leslie, a former U.S. Army captain who served in Baghdad and Friedberg, Germany, worked with Gibson Dunn in the comany's $815 million purchase of Southcross Energy Partners. Southcross GC Kelly Jameson of Dallas turned to Locke Lord as its legal adviser, while Akin Gump represented the Southcross conflicts committee.
Billie Ellis posed as a rancher in 1984 to buy 2,500 acres in Arizona to develop a scientific experiment called Biosphere II, which was a dome designed to recreate Earth as a way to possibly settle Mars. He helped Bob Bass buy The Plaza Hotel for $250 million in 1988 and resold it to Donald Trump six months later for $410 million. For four decades, Ellis has been recognized as the best commercial real estate lawyer in Texas history. He’s represented some of the most powerful and wealthy individuals in the state, including the Bass brothers, Richard Rainwater and David Bonderman. And does he have some stories to tell.
Two women GCs are starting off the week on total #girlboss status, leading Irving-based Vistra Energy’s first mega-deal: a $4 billion purchase of Houston-based Dynegy. They both hired outside lawyers based in New York.
Big Pharma and food distribution provided billable hours for Texas firms last week, but the rest of the week’s deals were still dominated by oil and gas. Claire Poole has the names and details, as well as the numbers, in her weekly report for The Texas Lawbook.
Three law firms continue to dominate the top of the rankings for advising Texas-based companies in mergers and acquisitions. New data provided exclusively to The Texas Lawbook from the global research firm Mergermarket shows that 12 significantly increased the number of deals they’ve handled during the first nine months of 2017. The Texas Lawbook has complete details on the M&A rankings.
It was slim pickings in M&A and securities work by Texas lawyers this past week, with only six transactions reported involving 36 attorneys in-state and $2 billion in value. The Texas Lawbook has the details here.
Third quarter mergers and acquisitions involving Texas companies dropped to the lowest point in four years, according to the research firm Mergermarket. Thanks to a handful of large-dollar deals, transactional value jumped 39 percent in Q3 compared to earlier periods in 2017. The Texas Lawbook has the data.
A crowded field of investors, sticky oil prices and the return of investor activism have set the stage for a glut of consolidation in the oil and gas sector, predicts a major investment adviser. Lawyers and bankers need to sharpen their pencils. Claire Poole has the details in The Texas Lawbook.
Evercore continues its reign as the financial adviser handling the most M&A involving Texas-based businesses. Piper Jaffray, JPMorgan, Barclays, Citi and Moelis saw the number of deals in which they are advising jump significantly. The Texas Lawbook has these exclusive numbers from Mergermarket.
M&A and capital markets activity surged last week. From Locke Lord advising Medallion Gathering on its $1.8 billion sale to V&E counseling Omega on a $500 million acquisition, 100 Texas lawyers worked on a dozen transactions worth around $6.57 billion. The Texas Lawbook has all the details.
M&A and capital markets activity involving Texas lawyers were sparse in number and modest in size last week. In all, eight transactions were announced in M&A, private equity and securities offerings during the final week of September. The Corporate Deal Tracker shows that 19 lawyers from 11 different firms worked on the transactions that had a cumulative value of $3.1 billion. The Texas Lawbook has the details.
Eight M&A and private equity transactions with a total combined deal value of more than $4 billion. The three securities offerings – one IPO and two debt offerings – raised about $770 million. Last week showed that the energy sector remains a vibrant deal market.
© Copyright 2026 The Texas Lawbook
The content on this website is protected under federal Copyright laws. Any use without the consent of The Texas Lawbook is prohibited.
