Three V&E Partners Leave for Simpson Thacher and Kirkland

© 2015 The Texas Lawbook.By Mark Curriden (Feb. 14) – Three partners in the corporate section at Vinson & Elkins in Houston, including one of the state’s most successful securities offerings lawyers, informed the law firm they are jumping to national law firms that opened Houston offices during the past few years. Partners Doug McWilliams and Jeff Malonson are taking their capital markets and mergers and acquisitions practices to Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, which has about two-dozen lawyers in its Houston outpost. Adam Larson, a partner in the M&A practice at V&E, is joining Kirkland & Ellis, which opened its Texas office in 2014 and has 50 lawyers in Houston. While all three lawyers have achieved success, McWilliams scored a stand out year in 2015. The Texas Lawbook Corporate Deal Tracker shows that McWilliams, who graduated in 1992 from the University of Texas with a degree in business and finance, was the second busiest lawyer in Texas in 2015 in representing issuers and underwriters in securities offerings. McWilliams led 17 securities offerings last year with a combined value of $8.5 billion. He also was the lead legal adviser on three M&A deals valued at $4.1 billion, according to the Corporate…