Two Leading Oil & Gas Lawyers Head to Latham & Watkins

By Mark Curriden, JD
Senior Writer for the Texas Lawbook

Two distinguished Houston oil and gas lawyers, Robin Fredrickson and Jeffrey Muñoz, have taken their energy transactions practice to Latham & Watkins.
Fredrickson and Muñoz join Latham’s Houston office as partners today. The pair had been at Vinson & Elkins for a combined 41 years.

Latham and Fredrickson are not strangers. Less than a month ago, Fredrickson and V&E capital markets partner Gillian Hobson represented Houston-based Inergy in its $1.8 billion sale of propane operations to Suburban Propane Partners, which was represented by Latham.

Widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading M&A lawyers in the oil and gas sector, Fredrickson has led or played a key role in more than a dozen energy transactions for upstream and midstream companies during the past three years – each deal valued at $1 billion or more. Those oil patch deals included acquisitions, divestitures, and joint ventures.

Last month, Fredrickson and Keith Fullenweider, who is head of M&A at V&E, represented TPG Capital in its role in a $1.25 billion purchase of ownership shares in Chesapeake Energy in April. In February, she represented Dallas-based TEAK in a joint venture with TexStar to build a major pipeline from the Eagle Shale natural gas formation.

“Latham is a great platform for us to expand our reach and we believe we can help their growing energy practice,” says Fredrickson, a 1988 graduate of the University of Houston Law Center. “I’ve been across the table from Latham lawyers, and I have witnessed their experience, knowledge and professionalism first hand.”

Fredrickson and Muñoz have worked together on several major energy transactions, including in 2010 when they represented Oklahoma-based Devon Energy in its $7 billion sale of assets in Azerbaijan, Brazil and the Gulf of Mexico to BP.

Muñoz’s practice also focuses on M&A, finance and related transactions in the oil and gas industry. In addition, he has significant experience in the formation of joint ventures and royalty trusts.

“Latham’s Houston office in only two years old, but it is already a tremendous success,” says Muñoz. “The firm’s commitment to Houston and the energy sector is impressive.”

Latham now has 16 partners and 54 lawyers in Houston. Last month, former Morgan Lewis oil and gas transactional partner Michael King also joined the firm.

“Robin and Jeff are two of the top lawyers handling corporate and asset-level transactions in the marketplace,” said Michael Dillard, who is managing partner of Latham’s Houston operation.

PLEASE NOTE: Content of The Texas Lawbook is controlled and protected by specific licensing agreements with our subscribers and under federal copyright laws. Any distribution of this content without the consent of The Texas Lawbook is prohibited.