Baker Botts Advises ARC Resources in Shell Deal

British oil and gas giant Shell announced Monday an agreement to acquire ARC Resources, a Canadian energy company focused on the Montney shale basin in British Columbia and Alberta, in a deal with a total enterprise value of about $16.4 billion.   

Baker Botts is acting as U.S. regulatory counsel to Calgary-based ARC Resources. Travis Torrence is head of legal for Shell USA.

April 28, 2026 Jason Philyaw

Gibson Dunn, Kirkland Advise on SpaceX, Cursor Deal

SpaceX said in a social media post that it has an option to acquire Cursor later this year for $60 billion, "or pay $10 billion for our work together.” That work is aimed at creating “the world’s best coding and knowledge work AI.”

Gibson Dunn advised SpaceX, while Kirkland advised Cursor.

April 22, 2026 Jason Philyaw

Dallas M&A Partners Join O’Melveny 

Ryan Gorsche and Katie Legband O’Brien, corporate M&A partners, have joined O’Melveny in Dallas from BakerHostetler, where they practiced in the firm’s mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital groups. They will focus their practices on complex domestic and cross-border M&A transactions and private equity matters. 

April 19, 2026 Elle Grinnell

TPG Acquires Sports IP Platform Learfield

Fort Worth private equity firm TPG announced this week that it has agreed to acquire Learfield, a Plano-based media company that specializes in monetizing the intellectual property of college athletics.

April 16, 2026 Jason Philyaw

Baker Hughes Sells Waygate Technologies to Swedish Firm for $1.45B

Houston energy technology company Baker Hughes has agreed to sell its Waygate Technologies business to Hexagon, a Swedish measurement technologies firm, for about $1.45 billion cash.

April 14, 2026 Jason Philyaw

Ares Management Buys Whitestone REIT for $1.7B

Alternative investment manager Ares Management Corp. said on Thursday that it has agreed to acquire Houston-based Whitestone REIT for $19 a share, or about $1.7 billion, in cash.

Kirkland is outside legal advisor to Ares and Whitestone's general counsel is Peter Tropoli.

April 9, 2026 Jason Philyaw

Omar Samji Heads Back to Gibson Dunn

Omar Samji, the Houston-based lawyer whose career in power and renewables spans more than two decades and six law firms, has left Weil for Gibson Dunn, the firm is announcing today.

April 8, 2026 Allen Pusey

Two More Partners Move to King & Spalding’s Dallas Office

Another two Dallas partners have joined their former Winston & Strawn colleagues at King & Spalding. Jeff Cole and Brian Jansen were named partners in the finance and restructuring practice group.

April 7, 2026 Jason Philyaw

Abu Dhabi Investor Acquires EMG Pipeline Interests for $2.25B

An Abu Dhabi investor announced late Tuesday that it is taking a stake in two major natural gas pipelines that operate across and between the Upper Midwest and Canada.

Weil is advising on the deal with a team led from Houston.

April 2, 2026 Allen Pusey

O’Melveny Snags Doug Lionberger from Holland & Knight

O’Melveny & Myers announced this week that veteran capital markets advisor Doug Lionberger has joined the firm from Holland & Knight — the sixth partner to lateral to the firm’s Houston office in the last two years.

March 31, 2026 Allen Pusey

The Texas Reincorporation Trap — What the ExxonMobil Vote Reveals About Board Power

ExxonMobil’s shareholders are being asked to cast a vote this May that they may not fully understand. The company’s board has unanimously recommended moving its state of incorporation from New Jersey to Texas, framing the change as a step toward “maximizing shareholder value.” That framing is misleading. What the reincorporation actually does is place ExxonMobil under a body of Texas corporate law that gives the board sweeping authority to restrict shareholder rights at any time, through a simple bylaw amendment, without asking shareholders for permission. Shareholders are being invited to approve a transaction that hands the board the keys to a governance regime that those same shareholders may one day wish they had never unlocked.

March 31, 2026 Christina M. Sautter

Sysco Acquires Jetro Restaurant Depot for $29.1B

Houston food distribution giant Sysco said Monday that it agreed to acquire Jetro Restaurant Depot for $21.6 billion cash and 91.5 million common shares, representing a total enterprise value of about $29.1 billion.

Jennifer Kaplan Schott is Sysco's Chief Legal Officer and Eve McFadden is General Counsel.

Paul Weiss, Jones Day, Wachtell and Latham & Watkins advised on the deal.

March 30, 2026 Jason Philyaw