Latham & Watkins announced April 26 that James Garrett has joined the firm’s corporate department as a partner and a member of the private equity and mergers and acquisitions practices.
Garrett, who is based in Houston, was most recently a partner at Vinson & Elkins.
His practice deals primarily with private equity and private M&A transactions, in addition to working with venture capital investors, across a variety of industries. He noted that, during the past year, about 50% of deals for him were in traditional energy, which was balanced by work in technology, digital infrastructure and industrials.
Tim Fenn, Latham’s Houston office managing partner, said he asked the young partners at the firm a few years ago to identify who within the M&A community at other law firms that they respected and liked. Garrett was at the top of many of the partners’ lists.
“In James’ case, it’s kind of a perfect fit because he does private equity, he does M&A, and he has cross-industry capabilities,” said Fenn. “His work has not just been in traditional oil and gas, but in industrials, renewables, infrastructure and even some tech.”
Garrett’s versatility can be seen in some of the recent transactions he led while at V&E, such as advising commodities trader Mercuria Group on its $169 million purchase of HC2 Holdings’ decarbonization asset subsidiary, Beyond6; Clovis Point Capital in its investment into cloud platform NinjaCat; and Vitol Group in establishing a U.S. partnership to invest in oil and gas properties called Vencer Energy.
He pointed to Latham’s global platform, history of excellence in Houston and culture among some of the determining factors for his choice to move.
“I’ve worked with a number of Latham lawyers in Houston and New York over the years, and they’ve all been great to work across from. Going through the recruitment process echoed that for me,” Garrett said.
“I’m very excited to work with great people that do complicated transactions across a host of industries,” he added.
Garrett grew up in East Texas in Nacogdoches alongside what he describes as a “family of litigators.” After graduating from Baylor University, a finance and auditing gig at ConocoPhillips brought Garrett to Houston where he’s lived ever since.