SM Energy, Civitas Resources to Combine in $12.8B Transaction
Gibson Dunn and Kirkland & Ellis advised on the deal, which will create the 10th largest oil & gas independent in the nation.
The Art of the Complicated Deal: Dealmakers Level Up
Deals involving hundreds of millions and billions of dollars are, by their nature, complicated. But over the past two years, publicly reported deals, even as described in their regulatory releases, have grown more intricate and detailed. The reasons vary from deal to deal, but complexity has become a near constant.
Welcome to the New CDT: More Data, Deals and Dealmakers
The Corporate Deal Tracker enters a new era today with news, analysis and data that the M&A community has never seen and that has been years in the planning.
The Texas Lawbook launched the Corporate Deal Tracker in 2015 as a simple database that identified transactions — mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and capital markets — handled by lawyers in Texas.
A decade later, The Lawbook is relaunching an expanded and enhanced version of the signature product. And the lawyers — the dealmakers themselves — remain the primary focus with the CDT.
UT San Antonio CLO Hailey Mullican Led ‘Historic Merger with Transformative Impact’
In September, the University of Texas San Antonio completed a merger with UT Health that legal experts agree was one of the most unique and complex deals of 2025 and will create the third-largest public research university in Texas and is expected to generate $7 billion in economic impact for San Antonio. “The merger is probably the most important decision the board of regents have made in the last 50 years,” UTSA CLO Hailey Mullican told The Texas Lawbook, pointing out that the deal was handled completely in-house. “Pretty quickly, the team realized that no one really knew how to do this. And I mean no one."
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s San Antonio Chapter and The Lawbook are awarding the 2025 San Antonio Corporate Counsel Award for M&A Transaction of the Year to Mullican and her legal team at UT San Antonio.
Huntington Expands in Texas and Across the South with Purchase of Cadence Bank for $7.4B
Another week means another bank consolidation in Texas. Huntington Bancshares said Monday that it is acquiring Cadence Bank in a stock swap valued at about $7.4 billion. Cadence — with dual headquarters in Houston and Tupelo, Miss. — has more than 390 locations across Texas and the South.
Wachtell and Sullivan & Cromwell advised on the deal. Cadence's Houston-based chief legal officer is Shanna Kuzdzal, who replaced the bank's longtime in-house leader Chuck Pignuolo in 2023 when he retired.
JERA Acquires Haynesville Shale Assets for $1.5B
The Japanese power company was advised by Baker Botts on the deal with Williams Companies and GEP Haynesville II, its JV with GeoSouthern Energy. The acquisition builds on JERA's existing longterm contracts with Gulf Coast LNG exporters.
National Fuel Buys CenterPoint Ohio Natural Gas Operations for $2.62B
Texas lawyers from Jones Day and Gibson Dunn advised the parties in CenterPoint's sale of a local distribution network that consumes 60 billion cf of natural gas each year.
Erin Hopkins: Another Veteran Paul Hastings Hire
Erin Hopkins, a veteran energy transactions partner at Baker Botts, is moving to the Houston office of Paul Hastings, his new law firm announced Tuesday. Hopkins brings with him 15 years of experience in energy and renewables transactions.
