Winter Storm Fern may have concluded at the end of January, but there was a flurry of lateral activity as the calendar flipped to February, headlined by the mammoth move of the Tom Melsheimer-led team to King & Spalding and Paul Weiss’ Houston expansion.
The Texas Lawbook tracked nine more partners with updated resumes as of Monday.
In Houston, Baker Botts announced that dealmaker Cody Carper has joined the firm as its new Oil and Gas co-chair from Weil, Gotshal & Manges. Carper focuses his practice focuses on acquisitions and divestitures of upstream and midstream assets, energy financings, equity joint ventures, and drilling partnerships.
“Baker Botts has represented virtually every type of oil and gas participant in both U.S. and international markets for more than a century,” Carper said in a statement. “The firm’s combination of depth in transactions, regulatory work, and disputes with its longstanding client relationships provides the platform my clients need for complex, high-stakes deals.”
Carper advised Mesa Mineral Partners last year in a new equity commitment from NGP Royalty Partners III. Over his career, Carper has represented clients in transactions throughout the Haynesville, Permian, and STACK formations.
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In more Houston dealmaker news, Sidley signed investment funds partner Ivana Rouse from Latham & Watkins. She works with sponsors across a range of investment sectors, including oil and gas, infrastructure, real estate, venture funds, growth equity, credit, and hedge funds.
Rouse was the lead lawyer for Latham in a couple of deals covered in The Texas Lawbook’s Corporate Deal Tracker Roundup in 2025: ParaFi’s investment in Sharplink Gaming and Singapore blockchain management and services company Mantle Guard in the launch of its blockchain investment fund Mantle Index Four Fund.
Sidley Chair Yvette Ostolaza said “Ivana is one of a few very highly regarded private funds lawyers with a strong client following that overlaps nicely with our existing global funds and energy platform. Growing our global fund capabilities is strategic and an area of continued investment for the firm.”
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Dallas tax expert Jonathan Macke officially joined Kirkland & Ellis from Weil, where he was co-managing partner of the Dallas office. Macke advises on the tax aspects of corporate transactions, including domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and financing transactions. He also advises on transactions involving partnerships and other pass-through entities, and represents sponsor and investor clients on private investment funds matters.
Macke appeared on 13 deals detailed in The Lawbook’s CDT Weekly Roundup columns in 2025, including the $290 million sale of cybersecurity firm ThreatConnect to Dataminr and advising Presidio’s management team in the Fort Worth company’s $479 million de-SPAC merger to go public.
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Barnes & Thornburg, Blank Rome, and Cozen O’Connor gained talent in Dallas as well.
BT added corporate partner Ryan Mitchell from McGuireWoods. Mitchell focuses his practice on control and non-control private equity transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, strategic and platform stock and asset acquisitions, minority equity investments, and recapitalizations.
Dallas litigator Mark Johansen posted on LinkedIn that he has moved his practice from Egan Nelson to Blank Rome. Johansen focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation involving multimillion-dollar contract and fraud disputes, mergers and acquisitions, business torts, securities and shareholder litigation, labor and employment, trade secrets, and professional liability. His M&A-related disputes stem from corporate transactions such as spinoffs, representation and warranty issues, and post‑closing disputes.
Jayme L. Butcher, co-chair of Blank Rome’s litigation practice, said in a firm release “we’re strengthening our litigation bench at a time when the North Texas landscape is becoming more demanding — more matters are moving into the Texas Business Court, more contract and governance disputes, more private equity‑related issues, and a noticeable rise in regulatory and compliance litigation. Our clients need trusted, on‑the‑ground trial counsel to manage these increasingly high‑stakes cases.”
Cozen picked up a team of four Dallas lawyers from Faegre Drinker – Susan Egeland, Matt Sapp, Dazia Anderson, and Madeline Boche – to strengthen its Global Insurance Department.
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The Lawbook also reported Monday that Weil officially opened an Austin office.