© 2014 The Texas Lawbook.
By Brooks Igo – (Aug. 4) – Baker Botts recently announced Houston corporate attorney Lyman Paden joined the firm as a partner after practicing for more than 30 years at Locke Lord.
Paden said he expected to end his legal career at his old firm until he received an unsolicited inquiry to make a change, which he explored for three reasons: new challenges, Baker Botts’ reputation and invigoration.
“Upon reflection, I realized that 34 years in the same place had left me in something of a rut,” he said. “A change would be invigorating.”
Paden, a Stanford Law School graduate, focuses his practice on commercial lending transactions. He has assisted clients in asset securitizations, commercial paper back-up lines, municipal finance transactions and work-outs of troubled transactions.
Early in his career, Paden worked on the first billion dollar deal agented by a Houston bank – coincidentally, Baker Botts represented the borrower in the transaction. He said it was a fast-paced, high stakes transaction with a lot of visibility for the client.
More recently, Paden represented the borrower in another billion dollar deal agented by a Houston bank.
“It was the fourth iteration of the transaction, and the challenge was to make the changes appropriate to the borrower’s changing circumstances while avoiding changes-for-change’s-sake that would cause the parties to slow the pace of the transaction,” he said.
Paden says credit terms are generally easing for many borrowers.
“However, many petroleum exploration and production companies may have overpaid in recent asset acquisitions,” he cautioned. “These companies may have to take steps to address what’s turned out to be over-borrowing.”
In addition to his private practice, Paden serves as chancellor to Christ Church Cathedral, where he handles a variety of issues from employment law to intellectual property to merger of nonprofit corporations.
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