King & Spalding announced Friday that it has lured longtime Baker McKenzie partner and M&A and capital markets specialist Jonathan Newton in Houston.
Newton started his legal career at Baker McKenzie and practiced there for nearly 30 years. From 2014 to 2019, he led the firm’s 100-attorney Houston office. He said he is excited to contribute to his new firm’s continued growth.
“King & Spalding has established a prominent presence as a top law firm, both in Houston and globally,” Newton said. “The firm has an exciting international energy platform, across the US, EMEA and Asia,” Newton said in a statement.
Newton’s transactional practice also includes SEC reporting and corporate governance advice; convertible and straight equity and debt offerings; internal corporate restructurings; venture capital financings; and joint ventures.
Weatherford International has been a client for Newton. In 2018, he advised the Houston-based oil and gas company on a couple of transactions noted in The Texas Lawbook’s Corporate Deal Tracker.
One deal included the sale of Weatherford’s land drilling rig operations in Algeria, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and two idle land rigs in Iraq to ADES International Holding Ltd. for $287.5 million. The other involved the $205 million sale of the company’s laboratory services business to a joint venture between Carlyle Energy Mezzanine Opportunities Fund II and CSL Capital Management.
In a 2019 transaction outside of Newton’s energy focus, the corporate attorney aided Dallas-based Freeman Co. and Encore Event Technologies on Encore’s sale to the Blackstone Group-backed PSAV for an undisclosed sum.
In addition to his law practice, Newton served for 10 years as commissioner on the Finance Commission of Texas, which oversees banks, savings and loan institutions and consumer credit matters.