Q2 Solid for M&A Lawyers in Texas

© 2012 The Texas Lawbook.By Mark Curriden, JD Senior Writer for The Texas Lawbook Business transactional lawyers in Texas saw their workload pick up significantly during the second quarter of 2012. New data by mergermarket shows that there were 96 corporate mergers and acquisitions in Texas during April, May and June, which is a 26 percent increase over the same period in 2011. It was the highest deal count for any quarter since the fourth quarter of 2010. The Q2 numbers somewhat offset a dismal first quarter. Overall, the number of corporate transactions during the first six months of this year totaled 172, which was an eight percent decline from the same period a year earlier. The value of the deals totaled more than $57.6 billion, which is up 13.6 percent from 2011. However, the spinoff of Phillips 66 from ConocoPhillips accounted for $20.6 billion, or more than one-third of the total amount, according to mergermarket, an independent research firm based in London. “Energy deals continued to dominate the Texas deal-making landscape in the first half of 2012,” says Chad Watt, a Dallas-based analyst on M&A matters for mergermarket. “Big public energy businesses and energy-focused private equity firms have been…