© 2017 The Texas Lawbook.
By Mark Curriden
(April 27) – Hillary Holmes was completely satisfied as a partner practicing capital markets and M&A at Baker Botts in Houston for the past 13 years.
But today, Holmes and five other Baker Botts corporate law partners – James Chenoweth, Gerry Spedale, Doug Rayburn, Tull Florey and Shalla Prichard – start as lawyers in the newly opened Houston office of global law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
“It’s lightning in a bottle,” Holmes said in an interview with The Texas Lawbook. “We’ve captured all of these amazing and brilliant lawyers to work together.”
Gibson Dunn officially opened its Houston office in February by announcing that Latham & Watkins partner Michael P. Darden had joined the firm and would lead its operations there. Former Apache Business Development Manager Justin T. Stolte, who was previously a lawyer at Baker Botts, also joined Gibson in February as a partner.
The six Baker Botts partners – all of whom focus on energy M&A, corporate finance and capital markets – also notified their firm management in February that they were leaving, but Baker Botts management invoked a provision in the firm’s partnership agreement requiring that they stay at the firm for up to 90 days.
Lawyers familiar with the situation say that the 90 days expire next week, but that Baker Botts leadership released Holmes and the other five partners because they would have owed them another full month of compensation if the lawyers were still there on May 1.
Holmes says the jump to Gibson Dunn, a 117-year-old firm founded in Los Angeles, is not about leaving Baker Botts or being dissatisfied with the only firm she has known as a lawyer.
“Baker Botts is a very special place – a great firm to learn to practice law,” she said. “When I learned about the team that Gibson was putting together, it was so exciting. The resources and expertise that Gibson offered was so compelling that I did not have to think twice.
“This is one of those situations where you don’t know what you don’t have until you see what they offer at Gibson,” Holmes said.
Gibson Dunn, a 1,200-lawyer firm that has a 55-lawyer office in Dallas, has rented office space in the LyondellBasell Tower at 1221 McKinney St. in downtown Houston. Beck Redden is headquartered in the same office building.
Darden, who served as the global chair of Latham’s oil and gas transactional practice, said Gibson Dunn will need to add about 20 associates over the next few months to have the office fully staffed and operating.
“We’ve put together a team that can provide a full array of corporate transactional services to those in the oil and gas sector,” Darden said. “We are traditional oil and gas lawyers – what people in the energy industry call dirt lawyers, which we wear as a badge.”
Baker Botts, in a written statement, said that the firm wished the six partners “every success in the future” and wished them well.
“The movement of lawyers from one firm to another happens on a regular basis at firms around the world, and is par for the course,” Baker Botts said in the written statement. “Our firm is dedicated to providing outstanding client service. That has been our focus for 177 years, and it will remain so in the future. Baker Botts continues to grow, and this event will in no way distract us from our mission of serving our clients and continuing to improve upon our world class law firm.”
Baker Botts pointed out that it has added 17 attorneys since the start of 2017, including nine former Norton Rose Fulbright partners.
Darden said that he had “no big issues” leaving Latham.
“I reached the point at Latham where I had done as much as I could do,” he said.
Darden pointed out that at age 59, he is “the old man of the group.” The other seven partners are in their late 30s or 40s, which has become the most coveted group of lawyers targeted by national elite law firms.
“Partners about 40 years old are perfect because they have 15 years of experience, they have developed a solid book of business and they still have another 20 years or more of practice left,” Gibson Dunn partner Rob Walters, who leads the firm’s Dallas office, said in an interview in February.
The new Gibson Dunn partners include:
Doug Rayburn, who focuses his capital markets practice on the representation of underwriters and issuers in public offerings private placements, including IPOs, high yield offerings, investment grade and convertible note offerings, offerings by MLPs and offerings of preferred and hybrid securities;
Gerry Spedale, who focuses his practice on capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and corporate governance matters for companies in the energy industry, including MLPs.
Hillary Holmes, a capital markets lawyer whose practice focuses on securities offerings and SEC and governance counseling for MLPs and corporations in the energy industry.
Tull Florey, who has extensive experience advising energy companies in corporate and securities law, with a focus on mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings and governance matters.
Shalla Prichard, who focuses her practice on energy finance and counsels borrowers, private equity investors, financial institutions, and other institutional investors in senior and subordinated debt, acquisition financings, joint-venture financings, MLP finance matters, development capital, asset-based lending, and other forms of debt and equity financing.
James Chenowth, who is a federal income tax lawyer specializing in MLPs and oil and gas upstream and midstream transactions. He has substantial experience in tax-efficient structuring of MLP IPOs and follow-on offerings, and providing tax advice in connection with energy M&A and A&D, especially advising energy companies and private equity regarding funding, formation, and acquisition and disposing of upstream and midstream assets and development joint ventures.
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