© 2017 The Texas Lawbook.
By Mark Curriden
(March 3) – Two down, six to go.
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher confirmed a month ago that it is opening an office in Houston. On Wednesday the 1,200 lawyer global law firm finally announced two of the eight partners who will launch the firm’s second Texas operation, including a former M&A executive at Apache Corporation.
Gibson Dunn, which has a 55-lawyer office in Dallas, is expected to announce the names of partners from Baker Botts who will join the firm later this month. The firm, which was founded in Los Angeles 117 years ago, plans to have eight partners on board by the end of April. It has rented office space in the LyondellBasell Tower at 1221 McKinney St. in downtown Houston. Beck Redden is headquartered in the same office building.
Darden served as the global chair of Latham’s oil and gas transactional practice since he joined the firm in 2011. In fact, he was a partner at Baker Botts in Houston, where he held the same position prior to joining Latham. His practice focuses on international and domestic oil and gas ventures, energy infrastructure projects, asset acquisitions and divestitures, and energy-based financings.
A 1986 graduate of the University of Houston Law Center, Darden also received his MBA from Rice University in 2002 and a BBA in Petroleum Land Management in 1980 from The University of Texas.
Stolte, who received his law degree from the University of Notre Dame, was a petroleum engineer at Chevron and then joined the oil and gas practice at Baker Botts and then Latham in Houston. In 2014, he jump to Houston-based Apache, where he carried out upstream and midstream oil and gas transactions, including deal origination, due diligence, negotiation, closing, and post-transaction integration.
Stolte holds a degree in petroleum engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and he is expected to complete the Executive M.B.A. program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management in May of this year.
“Michael is a seasoned lawyer who will complement our strong energy practice and enhance our presence in the oil and gas industry,” said Rob Walters, Partner in Charge of the firm’s Dallas office. “Justin has a deep understanding of the energy industry that will be extremely valuable to our clients.”
Darden, in a written statement, said he is excited to help launch Gibson Dunn’s new Houston office.
“Gibson Dunn is one of the top names in the legal market, and is the right platform for the next stage of my career,” Darden said. “I look forward to the challenge of helping the firm further expand its energy practice. The practices of the partners joining the firm in Houston will complement and strengthen the firm’s energy practice and ensure Gibson Dunn’s place among the leading energy law firms in the world.”
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