Houston energy/infrastructure partner Ravi Purohit is leaving Latham & Watkins for Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison.
Purohit will be based in New York but has experience working in the Texas energy sector, a spokesman said in an email. He owns a house in Houston.
Ravi Purhoit
There has been speculation that Paul Weiss is planning to open a Houston office and has been out trying to recruit lawyers.
When asked about that speculation, Paul Weiss senior communications manager Laura Van Drie said the firm does significant work in the oil and gas and infrastructure sectors and is “evaluating options in the Houston market.”
Purohit becomes co-head of Paul Weiss’s infrastructure practice (with Brian Lavin in New York). He previously was Latham’s global vice chair of its energy and infrastructure group (Justin Stolte is chair).
The M&A attorney spent two tours in-house at Blackstone and worked as a partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and was a managing partner at Alinda Capital Partners.
Purohit has advised on energy and infrastructure transactions, representing institutional investors and private equity firms and companies on M&A, asset sales, joint ventures and other corporate finance matters.
The attorney has a long record advising Blackstone Infrastructure Partners on large-scale energy and infrastructure deals.
The release lists his advisory work on Blackstone’s recently announced acquisition of an equity interest in Northern Indiana Public Service Co.; minority investment in FirstEnergy Corp.; take-private of QTS Realty Trust Inc.; purchase of a stake in Cheniere Energy Partners; take-private of Signature Aviation (as part of a consortium of investors); acquisition of a stake in Carrix; and its take-private acquisition of the limited partner interests in Tallgrass Energy.
Other recent representations include advising ConocoPhillips in its acquisition of a minority stake in Port Arthur LNG; Wafra on multiple renewable energy, transportation and digital infrastructure transactions; American Triple I Partners in its investment into Terminal 6 at JFK Airport; and DigitalBridge on its acquisition of Landmark Dividend and its acquisition of Telenet’s tower business in Belgium.
Purohit has also represented Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners on its purchase of the Lightpath fiber enterprise business; GI Partners on its take-private of ORBCOMM; and Basalt Infrastructure Partners on its acquisition of Fatbeam, a broadband service provider.
“Paul Weiss’s outstanding M&A platform guides prominent institutional investors and strategic companies on their most critical and important transactions,” Purohit said in the release. “I am excited to join the premier M&A and private equity law firm in the world and look forward to further enhancing the firm’s energy and infrastructure verticals.”
Corporate department chair Scott Barshay, who joined Paul Weiss in 2016 after a 25-year career at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, said in the release that Purohit has worked on many of the most important deals in the infrastructure private equity space in recent years. “No one understands the infrastructure deal landscape better than Ravi, and we are thrilled to have him on board,” he said.
Paul Weiss chairman Brad Karp said Purohit has worked with the world’s preeminent private equity firms on their most significant infrastructure investments. “Ravi’s unique experience and deep expertise in the energy and infrastructure industries make him a tremendous asset to our firm and our clients,” he said.
Purohit earned his law degree from Columbia University, where he sits on the law school’s board of visitors. He is qualified to practice in New York, Illinois and Texas.