Energy M&A and infrastructure attorney Jonathan Castelan left Latham & Watkins in Houston to join Clifford Chance as a partner starting in June, according to Castelan’s LinkedIn page.
Clifford Chance didn’t respond to an email for comment. A Latham spokesperson responded, “We thank Jonathan for his contributions to the firm and wish him all the best in his future endeavors.”
Jonathan Castelan
Magic Circle firms appear to be moving into Texas to grab a piece of the global energy practice. This past summer, longtime Vinson & Elkins IP/tech partner Devika Kornbacher in Houston joined Clifford Chance, which doesn’t have a Texas presence. And last month, London-based Allen & Overy merged with New York-headquartered Shearman & Sterling, which has offices in Houston, Austin and Dallas.
Castelan has lateraled across several law firms since leaving in-house corporate jobs, including at McDermott International Inc., Tetra Technologies Inc. and Noble Corp. He spent two years in the energy section at Porter Hedges, almost two years at Kirkland & Ellis and four-plus years at Latham.
The energy lawyer did a lot a work at Latham. Just last April, he represented ExxonMobil on a carbon capture and storage agreement with Linde, the second one that he has done for the oil and gas giant.
Last year, he was part of the teams that advised Brookfield Renewable on investing $500 million into California Resources carbon JV and on TotalEnergies’ purchase of SunPower Corp.’s commercial and industrial solutions business for $250 million.
Castelon also co-led, with Justin Stolte, counseling Avfuel Corp. on its multimillion-dollar investment in Alder Fuels, a clean tech developer that produces sustainable aviation fuel; and Chevron on its joint venture with Bunge to create renewable feedstocks, leveraging Bunge’s expertise in oilseed processing and farmer relationships and Chevron’s expertise in fuels manufacturing and marketing.
His other past clients include Trafigura, Salt Creek Midstream, Quanta Services Inc., Sasol, EQT, Shell and Oaktree Capital Management.