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The Houston-based partner at Andrews Kurth was the lead legal adviser in more securities offerings than any other lawyer in Texas during the first nine months of 2015. And he was busy representing clients in the M&A market, too. The Texas Lawbook highlights O’Leary’s work this year and his insights on the current state of the market.

New data shows that M&A activity in Texas in has declined four consecutive quarters, but the deals that are getting done are twice as big and significantly more complex. Corporate lawyers and investment bankers now predict energy M&A could remain stagnant or plunge even more over the next year.

“This market is just brutal,” says Deliotte’s William Snyder. “There’s going to be prolonged pain.”

The Texas Lawbook’s Corporate Deal Tracker has every merger, acquisition and JV handled by Texas lawyers in 2015.

Houston-based Targa Resources Corp. has agreed to purchase its limited partnership, Targa Resources Partners (TRP), in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $6.7 billion.

Houston-based Targa Resources Corp. has agreed to purchase its limited partnership, Targa Resources Partners (TRP), in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $6.7 billion.

A team of Norton Rose Fulbright lawyers led by Brett Govett scored a take-nothing verdict late last week in Texas’s Eastern District for a patent infringement case involving reflective insulation products.

Lawyers for a 56-year-old Fort Worth air conditioning repairman severely burned while fixing a compressor are asking a Texas state court judge to uphold a multimillion-dollar judgment for their client. Clarence Johnson sued St. Louis-based Emerson Climate Technologies and Fusite for designing and selling the defective compressor that sprayed scorching hot oil on his face and torso causing him to suffer second-degree and third-degree burns on 62 percent of his body.

Energy Future Holdings seeks a fresh start in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., today, arguing that breaking up the company offers it and its creditors the best chance to move on with the least possible financial pain. The trial is expected to run through at least the end of the month, pitting rival attorneys against one another in a bid to extract the most value they can from $40 billion in outstanding debts. The Dallas Morning News and The Texas Lawbook are following the case closely.

The Dallas offices of Jones Day and Vinson & Elkins were lead advisers in the two largest acquisitions of the week. Bridgestone Retail Operations selected M&A partners Scott Cohen and Alain Dermarkar of Jones Day to handle its $835 million purchase of Pep Boys. BlueScope Steel Ltd. chose Vinson & Elkins partners Robert Kimball and Marc Rose to advise it in its $720 million acquisition of Cargill’s 50 percent ownership of North Star BlueScope Steel.

The Dallas offices of Jones Day and Vinson & Elkins were lead advisers in the two largest acquisitions of the week. Bridgestone Retail Operations selected M&A partners Scott Cohen and Alain Dermarkar of Jones Day to handle its $835 million purchase of Pep Boys. BlueScope Steel Ltd. chose Vinson & Elkins partners Robert Kimball and Marc Rose to advise it in its $720 million acquisition of Cargill’s 50 percent ownership of North Star BlueScope Steel.