Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher confirmed in a news release on Thursday afternoon that the firm is the lead counsel to SpaceX on its initial public offering set to price Friday and revealed the lawyers involved across the entire transaction.
Gibson Dunn’s capital markets team is led by Houston partners Hillary Holmes, Harrison Tucker and Atma Kabad.
Partners George Sampas in New York, Rob Little in Dallas and Chris Trester in Palo Alto advised on M&A aspects.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that SpaceX, which has its headquarters in Starbase in the far southeast corner of Texas, has raised nearly $75 billion by offering more than 555 million shares at $135 each.
So far this year, The Texas Lawbook’s Corporate Deal Tracker notes that Holmes has also:
- Co-led Coterra Energy on its $58 billion sale to Devon Energy in a merger of Houston energy giants
- Led the Gibson Dunn team on the launch of a new national securities exchange, Nasdaq Texas
- Served on the firm’s team for ExxonMobil’s reincorporation to Texas
Working on the issuer side, Gibson Dunn was responsible for preparing and negotiating the prospectus, managing regulatory filings, as well as advising on governance, disclosure and deal structure.
The Gibson Dunn capital markets team also includes Houston associates Benjamin Blefeld, Muriel Hague, Malakeh Hijazi, Lawrence Lee, Anna Strong, and Daniel Quesenberry. Houston of counsel Robbie Hopkins and Patrick Cowherd also worked on the team that advised SpaceX, as did New York-based of counsel Rodrigo Surcanand Marie Kwon, with associate Mashoka Maimona in San Francisco.
Dallas partners Gina Hancock and Krista Hanvey and Century City associate Heather Monte advised on employee compensation.
Houston partners Gerry Spedale and Collin Cox with associate Jack DiSorbo advised on Texas corporate and litigation law aspects.
Spedale along with Julia Lapitskaya (New York), Rob Kelley (New York), David Korvin (Washington, D.C.) and associates Jenny Chen (San Francisco), Antony Nguyen (Orange County) and Matthew Dolloff (New York) advised on governance matters.
Other attorneys who provided counsel include Thomas Kim (Washington, D.C.), Brian Lane (Washington, D.C.), Osman Nawaz (New York), Mellissa Campbell Duru (Washington, D.C.) and Alan Bannister (New York) advising on securities regulation.
Cassandra Gaedt-Sheckter (Palo Alto), Vivek Mohan (Palo Alto) and Frances Waldmann (Los Angeles), along with associates Kyle Clendenon (Houston) and Arjun Rangarajan (Palo Alto) advised on AI. Partners Madalyn Miller (New York), Matthew Axelrod (Washington, D.C.) and Lindsay Paulin (Washington, D.C.), along with associate Chris Mullen (Washington, D.C.) advised on aerospace regulatory aspects.
Michael Murphy (Washington, D.C.) advised on environmental aspects and Bradley Smith (New York) on antitrust. Brian Lutz (San Francisco), Stephanie Brooker (Washington, D.C.) and Greg Boden (Los Angeles) counseled on litigation.
Michael Cannon (Dallas/Houston), Eric Sloan, Kate Long and Sophia Helverson advised on tax matters.
Gibson Dunn said 11 European attorneys are working on the SpaceX IPO, advising on U.K. and EU retail offering aspects.
The firm has an existing relationship with SpaceX, as Gibson Dunn previously advised the company on its massive tie-up with Elon Musk’s xAI and on other transactions.
Valued at about $1.25 trillion, the xAI deal earlier this year was led for SpaceX by Gibson Dunn’s M&A co‑chairs Sampas and Little, a move that set the baseline for the SpaceX IPO.
In March, SpaceX, with Gibson Dunn advising, completed its acquisition of Hexagon Masterworks from Norway’s Hexagon Purus ASA, a supplier of high-pressure composite storage cylinders for aerospace applications.
And in April, SpaceX agreed to pay as much as $60 billion for AI-coding software startup Cursor. Again, Gibson advised.
Additionally, last year, the firm advised SpaceX on its $17 billion purchase of EchoStar’s full portfolio of spectrum licenses. The deal team was led by Sampas, Little and James Springer (Washington, D.C.).
SpaceX subsidiary Tune Holdings also completed its acquisition of communications hardware manufacturer Akoustis Technologies and its RFM Integrated Device unit last year. Gibson Dunn advised Tune Holdings and SpaceX.