Willkie Adds Blake Winburne to its Houston Office
Winburne was global head of the energy and infrastructure group at Orrick where he worked for more than nine years. He has been named co-chair of Willkie's energy and infrastructure practice.
Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Winburne was global head of the energy and infrastructure group at Orrick where he worked for more than nine years. He has been named co-chair of Willkie's energy and infrastructure practice.
After 18 years as an in-house counsel and more than four years as the chief legal officer at real estate giant Hines, Richard Heaton is returning to practice law. Greenberg Traurig announced that Heaton has joined the firm’s Houston office as a shareholder in its real estate practice.
The energy-focused corporate securities partner leaves Latham & Watkins where he was a frequent contributor on some of Latham's largest transactions.
Bryce Kaufman spent nearly 12 years in the Houston offices of Latham, specializing in multilayered financial transactions. He joins Simpson Thacher's growing Houston office to focus on energy and infrastructure to help clients seeking financing solutions.
Skadden has added two oil and gas veterans to its M&A team in Houston. In a news release Monday, the firm said Mingda Zhao and Emery Choi will advise energy and infrastructure clients, as well as private equity funds on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, investments and other energy transactions.
Vinson & Elkins said Monday they've added two Kirkland & Ellis partners to their New York and Austin offices in Samuel Francis and Reed Schuster, both of whom specialize in organization, governance and regulatory compliance issues. V&E also announced a return to the firm by finance partner Caitlin Lawrence after a nine-year sojourn at Baker Botts.

After five years in-house with the NFL franchise, Sunil Jamal is returning to private practice to lead Munsch Hardt’s newly formed Sports + Entertainment Practice.
Gray Reed has hired a veteran strategy officer with experience driving growth, the firm announced Wednesday in a news release.
E. Lawrence “Larry” Vincent joined the firm after nine years at Burns Charest. During his time there, he was the co-lead attorney in a successful representation of a group of Houston homeowners alleging government mismanagement of reservoirs lead to flooding of their properties during Hurricane Harvey.
The firm has announced three new partners this month recruited from three different firms.

Former Olympic and world champion gymnast Tasha (Schwikert) Moser will lead the Rice athletic department's advancement of name, image and likeness and opportunities for the university's student-athletes following the approval of the NCAA’s historic $2.8 billion House settlement. Moser previously led Munck Wilson’s NIL consulting department.
With the hiring of the former White & Case partner, Paul Hastings has tripled its presence in Texas since January 2024; and the firm's chair, Frank Lopez, tells The Lawbook he is confident that the firm's Texas head count will soon top 100.
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