The evening before Thanksgiving last year, Energy & Minerals Group General Counsel Laura Tyson was working to close a $1.1 billion transaction when she learned that a sovereign wealth fund — which had invested in one of EMG’s funds — had filed a lawsuit in Delaware to pause the deal.
“The litigation was very challenging, because it didn’t just threaten a transaction, it threatened all of our reputations and the future of our company,” Tyson told The Texas Lawbook. “It was a very personal attack to me because we had all worked very hard, as we always do, for almost a year to put together what we believed was a very attractive and the best possible liquidity solution for our investors while also ensuring compliance with all applicable rules and regulations and best practices and balancing the complex conflicts involved. Our integrity was being questioned.”
Despite facing enormous challenges and extraordinarily tight deadlines, including the fact that the plaintiff had ties to most of the large Texas corporate firms, Tyson identified and hired a new legal team and put together their legal response to force the litigation into confidential arbitration only five days later.
“The matter proceeded on an extremely compressed timeline, with discovery completed in less than two weeks with arbitration preparation — including responsive briefs — conducted over the holiday period,” said Sidley partner Herschel Hamner. “Laura coordinated all team members, explaining the history of the transactions and the analysis conducted and rationale for the CV. Laura achieved this decisive legal victory while simultaneously continuing to advance the underlying transaction that gave rise to the dispute.”
EMG and Tyson won the litigation and closed the major continuation vehicle transaction.
Citing these successes, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are honoring Tyson with the 2026 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for General Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department (two to five attorneys).
“Laura has expressed that managing this action was one of the most stressful and challenging, as well as one of the most rewarding, pieces of work for which she has been responsible for in her 28 years of private practice and as in-house counsel,” said Hamner, who is one of two lawyers who nominated Tyson for the award.
Tyson, who joined EMG as its general counsel in 2014, is also the private equity firm’s chief operating officer and managing director. During that period, she has helped three flagship funds and countless co-investments raise more than $10 billion.
“In this triple capacity, Ms. Tyson holds responsibilities that extend far beyond those of a traditional general counsel, positioning her as a strategic leader across legal, operational and investment functions,” said Bill Nelson, managing partner for Houston and Texas at A&O Shearman, who also nominated Tyson for the honor. “Laura Tyson deserves recognition as General Counsel of the Year because she has redefined what it means to be a legal leader in the private equity and natural resources industry, demonstrating exceptional capability and leadership that extends well beyond traditional legal counsel.”
Tyson has led EMG in several huge transactions during the past 18 months, including:
- The sale of Medallion, a portfolio company with over 140 miles of crude oil pipelines and substantial storage capacity in the Delaware Basin;
- The closing of a $1.1 billion continuation vehicle involving midstream infrastructure assets rolled from EMG’s 2011 and 2015 vintage funds;
- Handling a $465 million term loan “B” facility and a $50 million superpriority revolving credit facility led by JPMorgan Chase Bank, as well as a subsequent $50 million incremental term loan facility also led by JPMorgan Chase Bank;
- Selling Catahoula Resources’ interests in two joint ventures to Tallgrass;
- Selling TerraVolta Resources’ lithium subsidiaries, comprising approximately 100,000 net acres in east Texas and southwest Arkansas, to Chevron, marking a major energy company’s entry into the domestic lithium market; and
- Securing $565 million in financing from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation to refinance existing debt and expand the company’s Brazilian operations, targeting production of 6,500 tonnes of total rare earth oxide by end of 2027.
“These transactions reflect not only her technical legal proficiency, but also her strategic vision in positioning EMG at the forefront of the critical minerals sector,” Nelson said. “The breadth and complexity of transactions she has overseen recently underscore her extraordinary capabilities.”
“What sets her apart is how she has leveraged that experience to create competitive advantage for EMG,” he said. “She has transformed legal from a risk management function into a strategic driver of value creation, enabling the firm to execute transactions with both speed and rigor while maintaining the highest standards of compliance and governance.”
John Kaercher, a partner at Kirkland & Ellis, said Tyson is “entirely self-made, and it shows in her approach to the job.”
“For as long as I have known Laura, she has been an inspiring leader, which makes her both an incredible lawyer who empowers those around her while ensuring clean and commercial execution,” Kaercher said. “With a background as a deal lawyer, it is imperative that deals get done and get done correctly, and Laura has the perfect mix of sound knowledge of the subject matter and reasonableness needed to not get bogged down in less important issues. Only thing I’d add is that if the sky is the limit, then I’m not sure where the sky ends for Laura.”
Tyson was born in Los Angeles, but the family moved to her father’s hometown of Lake Charles, Louisiana, when she was six. A lower-income middle-class family, Tyson’s mother worked three jobs, including as the local director of the animal control, while raising five children.
“She had a high school education but was passionate about animal welfare and revamping the local system,” Tyson said. “She taught herself how to write legislation to have laws in place to protect animals and be able to prosecute for animal abuse. She also became a reserve deputy and worked with law enforcement part time, and she did security jobs to make extra money, sometimes guarding prisoners at the hospital and protecting property from vandalism.”
Her mother’s work ethic rubbed off. Tyson started babysitting for money when she was 11.
“I had a lot of training and experience with babies because I took care of my little sisters since they were born,” Tyson said.
When Tyson turned 14, she got a hardship permit from the school board, allowing her to get a job as a cashier at Mrs. Winner’s Chicken & Biscuits making $3.35 per hour. She later worked at a clothing store in the mall until she graduated from high school.
“I averaged about 30 hours a week in high school and was still an honor graduate, on student council and national honor society, but I was unable to do any sports or other extracurricular activities because of my work schedule,” she said. “I immediately moved out when I was 17, and I have been on my own ever since then.”
Carmouche & Gray, a full-service law firm in Lake Charles, hired Tyson to work full-time for more than two years, and she worked for a solo family law practitioner for a year while she attended McNeese State University’ night program.
Working at the two law firms was Tyson’s first contact with lawyers, but thoughts of being an attorney came much earlier.
“I used to negotiate a lot as a child, demand explanations for things and could be very argumentative,” she said. “My mother was always saying I should be a lawyer.”
Tyson said she also had a “desire to have a fulfilling career that was intellectually stimulating while also providing me with financial health and stability.”
“Growing up not having enough money to buy groceries greatly impacted my desire to ensure I never had to worry about that and that I was financially independent,” she said. “I got the job as a runner at the Carmouche & Gray law firm right after high school. As a runner, I spent a lot of time at the courthouse making filings and obtaining orders and over a few months learned how to do research in the mortgage and conveyance records, so I started doing title work for the real estate department and then filling in for secretaries when needed.”
“It gave me a great opportunity to learn what I liked and didn’t like in different departments,” she said. “I was very drawn to business law, and I changed my major in college to economics and finance as a result.”
Premium Subscriber Q&A: Laura Tyson discusses the traits she seeks in outside counsel, what outside counsel need to know when working with her and more.
In 1994, Tyson moved to Texas where she earned her law degree from the University of Houston in 1997.
“I have always been thankful for Houston because I moved here with no family and no friends, and I found Houston to be a place where opportunities are available to those with qualifications as opposed to connections,” she said.
In Houston, a downtown insurance defense firm called Giessel, Barker & Lyman hired Tyson as a legal secretary, which allowed her to attend the night program at U of H.
After earning her law degree, she spent a year as an associate in the corporate department at Winstead. She then moved her practice to Baker Botts, where she made partner in 2006 and spent more than 15 years representing clients, including EMG.
Baker Botts gave Tyson the opportunity in 2000 to move to its Austin office.
“California law firms were moving to Austin and taking over market share,” she said. “The Houston-based firms were looking for ways to build their corporate departments in Austin. In the Houston office, work largely flowed from institutional clients through senior relationship partners to associates. There was always plenty of work to do. In Austin, I had to learn how to do client development and get out of the office and go to events and network. It was one of the best things I was ever forced to do in my career.”
“I think if I had stayed in Houston, I would not have been forced to get out of my comfort zone and build my own independent practice,” she said. “As a result, I had my own relationships and clients even before I was a partner.”
One of those clients was Rob Raymond with RCH Advisors. Raymond’s identical twin brother is John Raymond, the co-founder and majority owner of EMG. Tyson worked with RCH Advisors as outside counsel for many years. She met John Raymond in 2008 and began doing work for EMG at that time.
“During her time at Baker Botts, Laura developed a sophisticated understanding of the energy sector’s unique legal and regulatory landscape, working with private equity funds, hedge funds and other institutional investors on fund formation, investment activities and complex transactions,” Nelson said. “Notably, she served as outside counsel to EMG beginning in 2008, providing her with an intimate understanding of the firm’s investment strategy and culture before joining as a senior leader.”
“This background positioned Ms. Tyson to bring immediate value when she transitioned in-house,” he said.
Tyson said she was very happy at Baker Botts.
“I never thought I would go in-house. It was never part of my plan. I was thriving in private practice with a growing client base,” she said. “EMG had become one of my largest clients and had very interesting work. John Raymond convinced me to make the switch and join in 2014.”
“One of the reasons I never considered going in house is because I liked the variety of work in different industries as outside counsel and did not think I just wanted to work for a single operator, for example,” Tyson said. “But EMG had approximately 30 portfolio companies at the time I joined, and I was able to maintain that exposure to multiple businesses while learning much more about the business side.”
EMG has grown to $12 billion in assets under control during Tyson’s 12 years at the private equity firm.
“I have handled multiple transactions per year, including the formation and structuring of new portfolio companies and incentive arrangements with the management team to bolt-on acquisitions for existing portfolio companies and very challenging restructurings during the downturn as well as several divestitures,” she said. “At EMG, all of the investments made by our management team, along with allocations of carried interest and the issuance of incentive units, are handled by me due to the highly confidential nature of those investments and awards. I handle all internal general partner and management company agreements and all separation agreements and any equity repurchases following employee departures.”
Lawyers who work regularly with Tyson say she is the type of GC who “gets in the foxhole with you.”
“She doesn’t just juggle a million balls, she has a master command on every issue, every person or entity behind the issue, every relevant document,” said Lauren Manduke of Cole Schotz. “Her day-to-day interactions are not just with business men and women — they are with states, municipalities and sovereign entities. The types of matters and subject areas she has had to master to serve as GC and VP of EMG are extremely sophisticated and complex, and she not only does it, she makes it look easy.”
The transaction that was at the heart of the 2025 litigation was a $1.1 billion continued vehicle transaction involving interests in Ascent Resources that received board approval Nov. 19 “following a broad marketed process and after over nine months of negotiations,” Tyson said.
She said the transaction was an “important liquidity solution” for EMG investors.
“CV transactions are complex and conflicted but often the best way to provide desired liquidity,” she said. “In the case of both our Midstream CV and the Ascent CV, each transaction had underlying contractual terms that made a sale to an affiliate desirable as compared to an unconflicted sale to a third party including maintaining certain governance rights, avoiding other parties’ rights of first refusals and/or avoiding tag-along rights to achieve the highest exit valuation.”
When the sole investor sued in the Delaware Chancery Court to stop the transaction, Tyson — a corporate lawyer with almost no litigation experience — had to act fast.
“Hiring counsel was much more difficult than typical because the plaintiff is a very large sovereign wealth fund who uses all of the firms with whom we typically work and the large litigation boutiques,” she said. “I ultimately had to engage with counsel with whom I had no prior relationship and who knew absolutely nothing about our proposed transaction. The plaintiff had been planning this action and working with their counsel on strategy for months so we were very behind. I had to spend a lot of time getting everyone up to speed on the facts.”
The diligent work paid off.
On Feb. 27, just three months ago, the arbitrator released his ruling at about 6 p.m. Tyson was having drinks with friends at the Stonehouse Vineyard in Spicewood when the decision arrived.
“I had my phone and computer because I knew it was possible we would receive the decision that evening,” she said. “I immediately stepped away from friends and found a quiet place to review the 60-page decision and set up a conference call with our outside counsel and internal EMG team.”
“While we were very confident about the facts and our defenses, litigation is still uncertain, so we were very relieved and beyond excited when the decision was 100 percent in our favor,” Tyson said. “The rest of the evening was celebratory.”
Mollie Duckworth, a partner at Latham & Watkins and long-time friend of Tyson, said the EMG GC is a “detail-oriented lawyer” who is a “fierce advocate for her clients.”
“Laura makes it her business to understand the underlying business rationale for a deal and come to a commercial solution,” Duckworth said. “She doesn’t just focus on legal issues — she is a true business partner, and her judgment and sound advice are respected by everyone who has had the opportunity to work with her.”
“You will be hard pressed to meet another lawyer with the work ethic and determination of Laura Tyson,” Duckworth said.
Fun Facts: Laura Tyson
- Favorite book: The Lone Survivor. I also love good fiction like Michael Connelly.
- Favorite movie: I love action movies. I’m not sure if I have a favorite.
- Favorite drink: I love wine.
- Favorite restaurant: MF Sushi and Uchi.
- Favorite all-time vacation: I love the beach. My favorite trips have been to the Caymans and Bahamas.