Hunton Andrews Kurth announced last week that Dallas-based attorney Joanna Enns is the most recent addition to its cross-disciplinary mineral and mining practice.
Enns joined the team after a nearly five-year tenure at V&E, where she primarily focused on M&A, capital markets and liability management transactions in the natural resources and mining sectors.
Enns told The Texas Lawbook that she decided to join Hunton Andrews Kurth because of its strategic focus on the energy and financial services sectors and its global cross-disciplinary mining and metals practice.
Enns also welcomed the opportunity to work with the firm’s “talented” roster of Texas-based lawyers, naming partners Mike O’Leary and Courtney Butler as a pair she was particularly excited to work alongside.
“The firm [is] an ideal platform for my practice and clients,” Enns said.
Furthermore, Enns appreciated that the new role allowed her to expand Hunton Andrews Kurth’s presence in DFW and its capital markets side of the business.
“I am looking forward to supporting the firm’s reach in the mineral extraction and energy sectors, as well as expanding the firm’s capital markets offerings and presence in the Dallas-Fort Worth market, which continues to grow as a hub for public companies,” Enns said.
Enns’s hiring comes eight months after San Francisco, California-based attorney Martin Stratte joined the same minerals and mining team that Enns now has joined as Hunton Andrews Kurth continues to look to expand its mineral extraction and energy sector side of the business.
“Hunton Andrews Kurth has decades of experience serving the industry and has made several recent key hires in support of increasing opportunity in the mining sector,” Enns said.
As Enns continues to settle into her new role and looks toward 2025, she feels it is difficult to predict what the New Year will bring for the markets because she believes it is currently “in a transition stage.”
However, she has seen a recent uptick in new energy in the equity markets. Additionally, if interest rates continue to fall, she anticipates that near-term maturities will continue to drive activity in the debt markets.
“Demand driven by the energy transition and the need for critical minerals across the technology and manufacturing sectors is creating a lot of opportunity for investment and strategic transactions,” Enns said.
Outside of being a deal lawyer in the space, Enns also brings an additional abundance of experience to the Hunton Andrews Kurth team, having worked with a diverse grouping of companies from several different sectors and advising them on other important matters, including SEC reporting, ESG and exchange listing requirements and corporate governance issues.
Enns, a native Canadian, obtained her law degree in 2014 at Toronto’s Osgoode Hall Law School, receiving a bronze medal from her graduating class.
Once she graduated, she began her law career in Toronto at Shearman & Sterling, now known as A&O Shearman, before eventually relocating to Dallas in 2020 to join V&E as a senior associate.