Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
If you need some perspective on the wild swings in the oil and gas industry over the past few years, look no further than Plano-based Denbury Resources. Denbury, which sought bankruptcy protection just a few years ago, is suddenly looking prosperous enough to be scouting for a viable suitor, according to Bloomberg. Claire Poole reports on the Denbury rebound, as well as a slate of a dozen deals reported to the Roundup last week.
Forty-four corporate law firms with offices in Texas reported that their lawyers in Texas played a substantive role in representing buyers, sellers, targets, conflicts committees, financial institutions and other third parties in various kinds of transactions in which assets were bought, sold or merged. A handful of elite law firms – Sidley, Kirkland, V&E, Latham, Gibson Dunn, to name a few – topped The Texas Lawbook’s exclusive Corporate Deal Tracker law firm rankings for the first half of 2022. Several Texas-headquartered corporate firms also experienced a strong six months, including Haynes and Boone, Baker Botts, Akin Gump and Locke Lord. Four law firms had Texas lawyers who worked on nearly three-quarters of all the transactions that had deal values of $500 million or more.
Mabry was the co-lead of the climate change group at Akin Gump, where she made partner in 2020. She is the fourth corporate lateral partner hire Gibson Dunn has made in Texas this year.
Energy transition attorneys are gearing up for an uptick innovation investment and M&A activity expected to be spurred by the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. The IRA, signed yesterday by President Biden, contains $369 billion of climate and clean energy provisions, as well as $60 billion for environmental justice initiatives and provides incentives for substantial investments in rural communities. Significant to the Texas economy, the new law significantly rewrites the tax incentives for renewable energy and climate change mitigation under the federal tax code.
In the first half of 2022, capital markets transactions reported by Texas lawyers were noticeable in their absence; but apparently, no more. What began as a summer in languish has heated up over the past few weeks. The Texas numbers mirror the broader market, according to a report by Enverus last week. The CDT Roundup has its own observations, as well as the usual listing of the recent deals Texas lawyers have been working on.
Last week's 24 deals were plentiful and diverse: software for company benchmarking, energy distribution in Brazil, a Turkish mobile provider, recycled aggregates, carbon capture, aerial firefighting and even an upstream deal or two. But eyes are still on SPAC deals, which are facing some investor headwinds, and there were a few of them as well. The CDT Roundup explains and, as usual, names lots of names.
Vinson & Elkins represented Validus while Kirkland & Ellis advised Devon on a deal that came as a surprise to analysts. Claire Poole has more on the transaction.
Kastner Gravelle founding partner Ryan Gravelle wasn’t always a tech lawyer, but he says he got there as fast as he could. In this Q&A, the Austin corporate lawyer talks about the climate for startup funding and M&A for tech companies, competitors that have moved to Austin and how a potential recession will affect Austin's tech community.
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