Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison said Tuesday that it has finally found the lawyers needed to open and run a new office in Houston. Sean Wheeler and Debbie Yee, two longtime deal-partners, are leaving Kirkland & Ellis to do so.
Wheeler will join the firm as a partner and co-chair of global M&A for the prestigious white-shoe firm, a position similar to the one he held with Kirkland. Yee will also join the new Paul Weiss office focusing on energy M&A and infrastructure clients from the nation’s fourth-largest city.
“Houston’s dynamic business environment, world-class energy sector and rapidly diversifying economy make it an ideal market for the next step in our firm’s growth trajectory,” Paul Weiss Chairman Brad Karp said.
Wheeler received a bachelor’s in economics from UAB before getting his J.D. from Harvard Law School. He had been at Kirkland since the summer of 2018 after serving as co-chair of the oil and gas team at Latham & Watkins in Houston for nearly nine years. Prior to that, Wheeler spent a decade at Baker Botts.
Yee holds a bachelor’s in accounting and finance from NYU and a J.D. from New York University Law School. She joined Wheeler at Kirkland in late 2019 after a decade working with him at Latham & Watkins.
While at Kirkland the two were paired as co-leads on more than two dozen energy and energy infrastructure deals, according to The Lawbook’s Corporate Deal Tracker.
“Sean is the country’s most talented and accomplished deal lawyer in the energy space,” according to Paul Weiss Partner Scott A. Barshay, chair of the Corporate Department. “He is the ideal leader to spearhead our expansion into Houston.”
Barshay also said “Debbie is a star M&A lawyer with strong experience leading major energy and infrastructure deals.”