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If one were to look at Jim Griffin’s 2016 monthly calendar, there would be quite a few events scribbled in. A 1,700-mile move and phone calls and meetings for Microsoft’s $26.2 billion purchase of LinkedIn would just be a couple. The Texas Lawbook recently sat down with Griffin at the Dallas Ritz-Carlton to learn about what has been occupying the time of one of the state’s busiest M&A lawyers of 2016.

Baker Hughes and GE turned to New York law firms to handle their merger that will combine GE’s oil and gas business with Baker Hughes to create a new publicly-traded company co-headquartered in Houston and London.

A big-dollar showdown between two legendary oil and gas names in Dallas goes to trial this week in West Texas in a decade-long dispute over ownership interests and revenues from more than 160 wells in Reeves and Pecos counties. T. Boone Pickens’ Mesa Petroleum sued J. Cleo Thompson and three Midland E&P companies for allegedly violating the terms of a decade-old investment contract potentially worth up to $1 billion.

Energy transactional work M&A among Texas lawyers remains flat while other areas are up. Deal value is down more than 50 percent. Law firm competition remains stiff. Three lawyers from Weil, Andrews Kurth Kenyon and Kirkland & Ellis rank at the top for leading deals. The Q3 results of The Texas Lawbook’s Corporate Deal Tracker are out, with a full analysis in this article.