Laura Tyson’s Responsibilities at EMG ‘Extend Far Beyond a Traditional GC’

The evening before Thanksgiving last year, Energy & Minerals Group General Counsel Laura Tyson was working to close a $1.5 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.”