Is Mike Wortley Having a (Very Late) Mid-life Crisis? No, Just Retiring from V&E and Becoming a GC

© 2015 The Texas Lawbook.By Mark Curriden (April 13) – During the past 37 years, Mike Wortley crafted billion-dollar deals involving radio stations and dress pants, semi-conductors and oil companies. He helped private companies go public and mid-sized businesses merge to become big, He advised large corporations as they acquired competitors and counseled private equity firms buying public companies to take them private. He represented mega-conglomerates divesting assets in order to be strategically more focused. In all, Wortley was the lead lawyer for business leaders in more than 120 major mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and initial public offerings – transactions that had a combined value of more than $250 billion. “Simply put, Mike Wortley is a legend,” said Rick Lacher, managing partner at the investment bank Houlihan Lokey in Dallas. For nearly four decades, businesses large and small turned to Wortley to be their primary outside counsel. To them, he was the essence of stability and confidence. “Mike has been a rock in the world of corporate law,” said Mark Berg, executive vice president at Pioneer Natural Resources. “For business executives and general counsel, he’s always there, always unflappable, a constant.” He’s not there any longer. A 1978 graduate of…