A little less than two years after joining Winston, Kevin Brophy and Ming Lei are on the move again; this time to Bracewell as partners in the oil and gas transactions group in Houston.
The two independently joined McDermott Will & Emery in August 2021. Brophy told The Texas Lawbook they soon worked together on a deal and immediately realized they collaborated well on the technical aspects of the transaction while also meshing perfectly in their personal communication.
“For our practice that is heavy in oil and gas and other things related to energy, the appealing thing for us coming [to Bracewell] is that there is nothing from an energy transaction perspective or regulatory or environmental that the firm can’t handle, and just such a strong name historically in the oil and gas sector … and the people here are very nice and collaborative that it’s just a good place that benefits our clients and also hopefully we can help the firm achieve its goals.”
Prior to meeting at McDermott, Lei spent six years at Hunton Andrews Kurth in Houston, while Brophy was the general counsel at Kayne Anderson Energy Funds for 14 years.
Bracewell said in a press release that the duo provides complementary upstream and midstream counsel built on years of advising private equity sponsors, family offices, investment firms and operating companies on oil and gas transactions.
“Kevin and Ming are highly regarded oil and gas practitioners with a broad range of upstream and midstream experience,” said Bracewell Managing Partner Gregory M. Bopp.
“Bracewell has a strong oil and gas practice and a collaborative culture where lawyers across departments work together on behalf of clients,” Lei said in the release. “That’s a great fit for the cross-border and domestic energy work that Kevin and I do. I’m excited to be here.”
Brophy was co-chair of Winston’s energy and infrastructure group. He began his career as a tax attorney with Chamberlain Hrdlicka in Houston after earning an LLM in taxation from the University of Florida. A graduate of Jesuit College Preparatory in Dallas, he earned a bachelor’s at LSU and a JD at the South Texas College of Law in Houston.
Lei advises on a wide range of domestic and international mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, private equity investments and complex commercial contracts. Lei earned a JD at Duke University and holds an undergraduate degree from Wuhan University. She has extensive experience advising China-based companies on their investments, corporate governance and regulatory compliance activities in the U.S. She began her law career in Beijing as an associate with King & Wood Mallesons before moving to Houston as a summer associate with DLA Piper in 2014.
At Kayne Anderson, Brophy advised on aggregate commitments exceeding $7 billion. Bracewell said he counsels private equity sponsors, family offices and companies on upstream and midstream oil and gas transactions.
Brophy told The Lawbook that he expects M&A activity to stay strong through at least the rest of the year with a continued focus on natural gas to fund data center development.
“With commodity prices bouncing around, I think there is going to have to be some market therapy between sellers and buyers as to what they both view reserves to be and pricing out deals,” Brophy told The Lawbook. “Some bigger deals could see companies selling off assets to sure up their core bases, and that could be a boom of inventory for deals to get done. Obviously, there is a lot going on geopolitically right now and there might be some fallout from that before some people can see how their guidance is going to be for the year. I think everybody is a little blind to how much infrastructure was damaged in the war and what it’s going to cost to not just reopen the Strait and for things to go back to what they were, but there may be infrastructure and other supply constraints.”