O’Melveny & Myers announced this week that veteran capital markets advisor Doug Lionberger has joined the firm from Holland & Knight — the sixth partner to lateral to the firm’s Houston office in the last two years.
“Doug is a fantastic addition to our fast-growing Houston office and to our talented Capital Markets team,” said O’Melveny chair Bradley J. Butwin. “Our clients in Texas and beyond will benefit from Doug’s deep experience and versatility across capital markets and M&A transactions, especially in the energy and transportation sectors. It is a pleasure to welcome him to O’Melveny.”
At Holland & Knight Lionberger operated a poly-sector practice — in corporate services, public companies & securities, mergers & acquisitions, private equity, and energy. He represents both issuers and underwriters in public offerings, including traditional IPOs, follow-on offerings, and de-SPAC transactions, but has broad experience advising on M&A deals, private equity transactions, and securities law matters.
Lionberger’s move follows that of capital markets colleague James R. Brown who arrived at O’Melveny from Holland & Knight earlier this year. The two had joined Holland & Knight from Winston & Strawn together in 2023.
Since 2021, when California-headquartered O’Melveny first opened offices in Texas, the firm has added 90 lawyers — including 32 partners — in Houston, Dallas, and Austin.
Though his undergrad degree is from Texas A&M, Lionberger received his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. While at Boalt Hall, Lionberger said he developed a familiarity with — and respect for — O’Melvny, a California-headquartered firm (Los Angeles) that traces its origins back to 1885.
“I knew O’Melveny very well from my school days at UC Berkeley; it was a really popular law firm,” Lionberger told The Texas Lawbook. I’ve been watching what they’ve done in Texas over the last couple of years — their expansion, the people who were joining. I knew some of them from my Thompson Knight days as well as Winston. I was really excited to be part of the group.”
Following graduation from Berkeley in 2010, Lionberger joined Vinson & Elkins, at first in New York. He stayed at V&E for more than a decade before leaving for Thompson & Knight. In May 2021, Brown and Lionberger left for Winston & Strawn before joining Holland & Knight in 2023.
Lionberger notes that markets have changed in Texas, and elsewhere, over the arc of his career. Energy isn’t as dominate. Capital markets aren’t as dominant. But both are gathering in luster with the recent surge of energy- and capital-hungry data center development. And Lionberger has broad experience in both.
Lionberger says that traditional energy and capital markets are, in essence, are driving the resurgence, each of the other.
“I do think there is a movement by the SEC to ease some of the restrictions and some of the burdens of being a public company. I think that’s one. Here more locally in Texas, I think there is a movement back towards the public markets for energy companies. But I think those kinds of combined have really increased activity level that I am seeing in the public markets.”
“We’re pretty optimistic that will continue. And in the energy space, too. You are seeing a movement back to traditional energy, and it’s just very capital intensive.”
“I am starting to position back to the public markets, which I’m really excited about,” said Lionberger. “I’m a capital markets lawyer, right? And the public deals are the most fun.”