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Corporate Deal Tracker
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Texas Ticker
$61.5 Billion
The week is off to a fast start for Kirkland's Kim Hicks. She co-led two megadeals: the $12.8 billion merger of Civitas and SM Energy and Kimberly-Clark's blockbuster acquisition of Kenvue, valued at $48.7 billion.
CDT DATABASE YEAR-TO-DATE TRANSACTION TOTALS
NOV. 2, 2025
DEAL COUNT
1,021
DEAL VALUE
$770.3B
NOV. 2, 2024
DEAL COUNT
1,264
DEAL VALUE
$676.4B

CDT Roundup: 21 Deals, 12 Firms, 178 Lawyers, $18.7B

That Texas has created an increasingly diverse economy is no secret. But the CDT Roundup this week notes something surprising: that Texas added more tech workers to its workforce in 2022 than any other state. What has that to do with dealmaking? Apparently, lots. Claire Poole takes a look at the rise in Texas-led tech deals that paralleled the rise in tech workers. Or was it vice versa? That, along with a look at the week in deals and the names of the 178 lawyers who worked on them.

Claire Poole

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Celanese GC Lynne Puckett Led DFW’s 2022 M&A Transaction of the Year

As a CIA intelligence officer focusing on Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Lynne Puckett “got a ringside seat to the dissolution of Eastern Europe as communist-controlled in 1989. It was also when she realized she wanted to go to law school.

Three decades later, Puckett is the general counsel of Celanese Corporation, an Irving-based global chemical and specialty materials company with a market cap of $12 billion. In November 2022, Puckett and her legal team closed an $11 billion acquisition of a majority ownership in DuPont’s mobility and materials business.

Citing the deal’s extraordinary complexity, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook named Puckett, her in-house legal team at Celanese and outside counsel at Baker Botts as the recipient of the 2022 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for M&A Transaction of the Year.

Mark Curriden

Energy Transfer buys EnCap’s Lotus for $1.45B

Vinson & Elkins, Sidley Austin and Shearman & Sterling advised on the cash and stock acquisition, which includes about 3,000 miles of pipeline through major areas of the Permian. After closing, Dallas-based Energy Transfer plans a new 30-mile connection with the Cushing hub in Oklahoma. Claire Poole details the deal and the names of the lawyers involved.

Claire Poole

CDT Roundup: 7 Deals, 7 Firms, 78 Lawyers, $14B

It's been five years since New York-headquartered Shearman & Sterling opened its first offices in Texas. The CDT Roundup thought it might be a good time to check in with Bill Nelson, the head of those Texas offices. His thoughts about the transition and the changes he's seen in his practice are featured this week, along with a relatively skimpy roll call of the 78 lawyers who ignored spring break to turn in this week's roster of deals.

Claire Poole & Allen Pusey

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