U.S. District Judge Marcia A. Crone sentenced investment adviser Lawrence Allen DeShetler of The Woodlands to five years in prison for fleecing clients of $1.9 million. The Houston Chronicle has all the details.
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Non-Lawyers Grow More Powerful in Texas Law Firms
Non-lawyer professionals are having a profound effect on the operational and strategic management of top law firms everywhere. Long regarded as an Old School market, Texas had been slow to gravitate toward this evolution. But new competitive realities have taken hold in the Lone Star State and Texas firms are changing the ways they do business at an increasingly rapid pace. Claire Poole has the story in The Texas Lawbook.
Corp. Deal Tracker Weekly Round-Up: 17 Firms, 94 Lawyers, 13 Transactions, $4.7B
Texas corporate dealmakers had another a brisk week. In addition to the $1.7 billion Vistra-Dynegy deal, there was activity in the food, financial services, chemicals, mining and waste industries, along with oil and gas. Claire Poole has the details in her weekly report.
Gibson Dunn, Locke Lord & Akin Gump Advise on $815M Midstream Deal
Houston-based American Midstream Partners assistant GC Tom Leslie, a former U.S. Army captain who served in Baghdad and Friedberg, Germany, worked with Gibson Dunn in the comany’s $815 million purchase of Southcross Energy Partners. Southcross GC Kelly Jameson of Dallas turned to Locke Lord as its legal adviser, while Akin Gump represented the Southcross conflicts committee.
SEC Charges, Settles Apache Engineer Insider Trading Case
The SEC has charged a former Apache Corp. petroleum engineer with insider trading. The SEC says
Christopher Lollar has settled allegations that he “traded on nonpublic information” by paying $435,809.50 in penalties and disgorgement.
Gardere, Foley Confirm Merger Talks
Dallas-based Gardere and Milwaukee-based Foley & Lardner confirm that they are in serious talks about combining. Such a combination would give Foley a strong foothold in Texas and an emerging presence in Mexico. The Texas Lawbook has details.
Billie Ellis – A Pioneer in Private Equity & Corporate Real Estate Dealmaking
Billie Ellis posed as a rancher in 1984 to buy 2,500 acres in Arizona to develop a scientific experiment called Biosphere II, which was a dome designed to recreate Earth as a way to possibly settle Mars. He helped Bob Bass buy The Plaza Hotel for $250 million in 1988 and resold it to Donald Trump six months later for $410 million.
For four decades, Ellis has been recognized as the best commercial real estate lawyer in Texas history. He’s represented some of the most powerful and wealthy individuals in the state, including the Bass brothers, Richard Rainwater and David Bonderman. And does he have some stories to tell.
South TX Jury Slaps $6.9M on CenterPoint, Westwind in Gas Leak Case
A Laredo jury last Wednesday awarded nearly $7 million to a local elderly man and his family for a 2015 house gas explosion that left him with severe, lifelong injuries
Former GC of El Paso Corp. Joins Forces with Reed Smith in Houston
Peggy Heeg was most recently at Norton Rose Fulbright
Vistra & Dynegy GCs use Simpson and Skadden for $1.7B Deal
Two women GCs are starting off the week on total #girlboss status, leading Irving-based Vistra Energy’s first mega-deal: a $4 billion purchase of Houston-based Dynegy. They both hired outside lawyers based in New York.