For the first time in a while, energy didn’t dominate the week for value. Still, energy deals dominated the deal count among the 12 M&A transactions reported. This comes as the Haynes Boone financing survey shows increasing interest in financing new upstream E&P. Claire Poole’s CDT Roundup has more, along with the names and firms of the 186 lawyers who worked on last week’s transactions.
More Stories
Two Billion-Dollar-Plus Energy Deals Announced with V&E Involved
Riverstone-backed Hammerhead Energy agreed to be sold to Crescent Point Energy for $1.86 billion and Enbridge purchased landfill gas-to-renewable natural gas facilities in the U.S. from Morrow Renewables for $1.2 billion.
Houston Trial Begins Over Wage Claim by ‘Unhinged’ Former Berg & Androphy Lawyer
Plaintiff Justin Pfeiffer says he’s owed $32,000 plus legal fees stemming from his 2018 resignation from the Houston law firm. Berg & Androphy says Pfeiffer is a “vexatious litigant” who “harasses all whom he claims have wronged him.”
Litigation Roundup: Jerry Jones Defamation Case Update, ‘Water-Saving’ Toilet Claim Draws Suit
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a Texas software company is among those named in a lawsuit alleging a conspiracy among landlords to artificially inflate rental prices, the Fifth Circuit issues a rare precedential opinion in a venue dispute that pries a case away from U.S. District Judge Alan Albright, and that appellate court also found a new U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission disclosure rule was “arbitrary and capricious.”
Litigation Boutique Burns Charest Nabs Longtime Assistant U.S. Attorney
Clay Mahaffey joined the Dallas-based firm after a 22-year run with the U.S. Department of Justice. He recently discussed his career, including a case that changed his perspective on attorney-client relationships, and why he made the move from DOJ with The Lawbook.
U.S. Trustee: At Least 26 Bankruptcy Cases Tainted Due to Judge Jones, Ex-Jackson Walker Partner Relationship
The U.S. Trustee filed notice Friday that at least 26 corporate bankruptcy cases in the Southern District of Texas are tainted and that $13 million in legal fees awarded to Jackson Walker should be revisited or declared invalid because of the undisclosed romantic relationship between Houston Bankruptcy Judge David Jones and former Jackson Walker law partner Elizabeth Freeman. The trustee also said the disputes should be transferred to the chief judge in the Western District.
The Texas Lawbook has an in-depth report.
P.S. — UH Law’s New Immigration Clinic Director, DVAP Pro Bono Awards, The “Why” Behind HBA’s Harvest Celebration
This week’s edition of P.S. features the fundraising outcome of the JL Turner Legal Association Foundation’s annual awards gala, an Arlington nonprofit that received federal funding to help prevent youth homelessness, select quotes from partners at Baker Botts and Hunton Andrews Kurth and LyondellBasell’s general counsel on why supporting this year’s Houston Bar Association Harvest Celebration was important to their organizations, this year’s recipients of the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program’s pro bono awards, and the University of Houston Law Center’s newest legal clinic hire.
Three Senior In-House Lawyers on How to Gain (and Lose) their Business
During a panel discussion last Friday at the Texas Minority Counsel Program’s 31st annual conference in Houston, the three high-ranking in-house lawyers at Goldman Sachs, Energy Transfer and Republic National Distributing went into detail on what they look for in outside counsel, and also offered a plethora of ways law firms could immediately land in the doghouse — if not lose their business immediately.
Seatbelt Defect Case Nets $976M Jury Verdict
The Houston law firm of Kaster Lynch Farrar & Ball teamed up with Philadelphia firm Eisenberg, Rothweiler, Winkler, Eisenberg & Jeck to secure the massive award for client Francis “Ru” Amagasu, who was rendered quadriplegic following a rollover accident in 2017. The attorneys argued the seatbelt in Amagasu’s 1992 Mitsubishi 3000 GT, which was designed to allow four inches of slack in the event of a crash, actually caused his injuries by allowing his head to come into contact with the car’s roof, breaking his neck.
Six Flags Merges with Cedar Fair in $8B Deal
Weil in New York counseled Cedar Fair while Kirkland did so for Six Flags, including an M&A partner in Austin and a debt partner in Houston.