Vinson & Elkins announced Monday that Mark Holmes joined the firm as a Houston-based partner in its finance practice. He was previously a partner at White & Case.
Holmes is an energy and infrastructure finance lawyer who advises sponsors, borrowers and lenders leading project and leveraged finance transactions across traditional and emerging energy and infrastructure sectors, including oil and gas, midstream, downstream, renewable energy, distributed generation, LNG, CCUS (carbon capture, utilization and storage), conventional power, energy transition and “circular economy,” the firm said.
Among his most notable M&A transactions: advising Marathon Oil on its 2022 purchase of the assets of Warburg Pincus-backed Ensign Natural Resources for $3 billion in cash, doubling its position in the South Texas’ Eagle Ford Shale; and assisting Continental Resources on its 2021 acquisition of assets in the Delaware Basin from Pioneer Natural Resources Co. for $3.25 billion.
Holmes is the first addition to the firm’s finance practice since eight from its ranks departed for Paul Hastings in March.
“We are familiar with Mark’s practice and the high esteem with which he is held by clients and professionals in the finance community,” Matt Strock, co-head of Vinson & Elkins’ corporate department, said in a press release. “Mark’s experience handling debt financings will prove enormously valuable to our clients, as they continue to invest heavily in traditional and renewable energy and infrastructure assets globally.”
Holmes said in the press release that he has long admired Vinson & Elkins as a firm and their reputation as a trusted adviser across so many key infrastructure industries. “I was particularly enticed by the firm’s culture, its status as one of the nation’s leading energy firms and its ambitions to continue to grow its finance practice,” he added.
Holmes earned his bachelor of arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin and his law degree from the University of Houston Law Center. He started his legal career at Bracewell, where he spent almost 16 years. Then he jumped to White & Case, where he stayed for almost five years.