Stephen Olson, a highly regarded Texas transactional lawyer with a strong private equity practice, has joined the Houston offices of Gibson Dunn, the firm announced Monday.
Olson joins Gibson from Jones Day, where he headed the firm’s Texas transactional practice and was partner-in-charge of the Houston office since January 2019.
Like any transactional lawyer in Texas, Olson brings with him oil and gas experience, but his practice also includes a diverse array of private equity investors including Global Oryx and Arsenal Capital Partners. Olson says his practice fits nicely with the increasingly diverse nature of M&A business in Texas.
For instance, in May he represented Houston-based SilverBow Resources in the acquisition of Eagle Ford upstream assets. But in the same week he also represented Arsenal Capital Partners in its acquisition of the adhesives division of the European firm John P. Kummer GmbH. In February Olson advised Arsenal on the purchase of four industrial coatings manufacturers by one of its portfolio companies. Arsenal is a $5.3 billion New York private equity firm focused on specialty industries.
“There’s still a concentration on energy, but there’s an important expansive and diversification taking place,” Olson said. “Even the upstream energy deals have a technology component to them these days.”
“For that reason, I think it’s important to have access to the kind of global reach and firm-wide expertise that Gibson has,” Olson says.
Born in Marietta, Georgia, Olson studied banking and finance as a graduate of the University of Georgia. But he earned his JD at the University of Texas in 2006 and journeyed to New York to work for Baker & Hostetler before returning to Texas where he signed on with Jones Day in 2015.
While at Jones Day, he says, he got to know and like many of the lawyers he’ll be working with.
“I’ve worked across the table from a number of great lawyers with Gibson – like Hillary Holmes, Tull Florey and Michael Darden — so I’m really familiar with they way they work and the way they represent their clients, and I think our styles are very similar,” Olson said.
Darden, partner in charge of the Houston office, said of Olson: “Stephen is extremely well-regarded in the local legal and business communities. He has built a first-tier private equity practice that extends well beyond the oil and gas sector, which will complement our corporate offerings in both Texas and through the world.”