O’Melveny announced Monday it officially launched an office in Houston, poaching three corporate deal partners from Willkie Farr & Gallagher.
The new partners are Angela Olivarez, Steven Torello and Ryan Cicero, who have transactional experience in M&A, private equity, capital markets and leveraged finance with a particular focus on energy and technology.
The three join Monica Hwang, the LNG and renewable energy project development partner who moved over to O’Melveny in November from King & Spalding (for more information on her hire, click here).
Olivarez focuses on mergers and acquisitions, capital markets transactions and other corporate and securities matters, primarily representing private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies on deals and issuers, underwriters and investors in public and private offerings of equity and debt securities. Her past clients have included CapStreet, Genesis Park and MG Partners Multi-Strategy Fund.
After graduating from Columbia Law School, Olivarez spent seven years as an associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York and London and seven years as a partner at Jones Day in Houston before joining Willkie in 2014.
Torello practices primarily in the energy sector, focusing on the upstream and midstream oil and gas industry, energy transition and private equity transactions domestically and internationally. His past clients include North Hudson Resource Partners-backed Split Rock Resources, Veritas Energy, Percussion Petroleum, Bruin E&P, Juniper Capital, Lime Rock, Kayne Anderson, EnCap Investments and Pine Brook Partners.
After graduating from Notre Dame Law School, Torello practiced at Jones Day and Akin Gump before leaving with colleagues to start the Houston office of DLA Piper in 2008. He left DLA Piper to join Willkie in 2018.
Cicero focuses on finance, bankruptcy, workout and corporate matters, primarily in the energy, industrial and digital-asset spaces. His past clients include Capstreet-backed TradePending, Juniper Capital, J.P. Morgan and York Tactical Energy Fund.
The UT Law graduate practiced at a variety of firms in Houston including Mayer Brown, Jones Day and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft before ending up at Willkie in 2015, becoming partner in 2019.
O’Melveny partner Jason Schumacher, a former Locke Lord partner who splits his time between exploration and production clients in Dallas and Houston, will work closely with the new Houston team to support E&P companies there, the release said. (For more information on his hire, click here.)
O’Melveny plans to recruit other Houston lawyers in multiple practice areas, including litigation, restructuring, M&A, intellectual property and labor, the release continued. The firm said it is focusing on those with experience in energy, technology, private equity and other segments of the Houston market.
“We have been impressed by O’Melveny’s entry into the Texas market and the quality and caliber of lawyers who have joined the firm in such a short time,” Olivarez, speaking for the group, said in the release. “O’Melveny has a well-earned reputation for excellence along with a uniquely collaborative culture and a client-first approach. The firm’s strategic emphasis on Texas, energy and technology makes it a great fit for us, and we can’t wait to be part of the team.”
Houston becomes the third Texas office launch for O’Melveny in the past year, following the debuts of Austin and Dallas last summer. The release said the firm now counts 47 lawyers in Texas, including 20 partners joining from a variety of major firms.
Added Bradley J. Butwin, chair of O’Melveny in New York: “They [the three hires in Houston] strengthen our successful and growing middle-market private equity practice and broaden our offerings for sophisticated clients in the energy and technology sectors.”