© 2014 The Texas Lawbook.
By Natalie Posgate – (July 1) – Tampa, Fla.-based Holland & Knight has officially opened an Austin office with the lateral hires of energy and clean technology experts Mark Davis, John Wright and Russell Parish.
The Austin opening is Holland & Knight’s second debut on Texas soil. A year ago, the firm opened shop in Dallas with 23 lawyers – 12 of them partners moving from Patton Boggs.
Davis joins the firm as a partner, and Wright and Parish join as senior counsel. The trio is part of a group of 11 attorneys moving over from the Austin-based firm Brickfield Burchette Ritts & Stone. The other eight attorneys are based in Washington, D.C.
Davis said he and his colleagues, who make up almost half of their old firm, decided to make the move to meet the increased needs of their co-op and municipal energy clients – especially regarding recent new rules and regulations by the Environmental Protection Agency.
“We really felt to meet our clients’ needs that this was going to be a positive move,” said Davis, who practices electric and natural gas utility law. “It gives us an opportunity to expand some of our practice areas as well.”
He said he and his fellow BBRS colleagues had been in talks with several other firms over the past two years that had additional areas of expertise that they couldn’t offer. Holland & Knight ultimately stood out because the firm has “great experience and influence” in some crucial areas such as government relations.
Davis added that the synergy was also a good fit for Holland & Knight, which is looking to expand some of its other practice areas to the Austin market.
The 11 new Holland & Knight attorneys will bring expertise in a wide array of matters that they handle for their rural electrical cooperatives, municipal electrical systems and other wholesaler supplier clients, including wholesale power contract negotiations; power plant acquisition, development and operation; finance; and hydroelectric licensing and compliance, among others.
The remaining half of the attorneys at BBRS represent industrial clients who are large users of energy, Davis said. He described the split from them an “amicable departure.
“When you go from a firm that was 25 lawyers to a firm that has over 1,000 lawyers, it’s a big change, but we are very excited about it,” he said.
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