Shawn Beloin

Jennifer Gasser A month after launching a new Houston office, Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP expanded the location with the addition of a corporate attorney who moved her practice from Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Jennifer Gasser has been welcomed this week to Paul Weiss as a partner in the M&A group in the corporate department at the Houston office, the firm announced Tuesday. Gasser said in a prepared statement she has "long been impressed" by Paul Weiss' M&A platform. "I look forward to collaborating with my new colleagues and expanding the firm's leading capabilities within Houston, a hotbed of activity for energy and infrastructure," Gasser said. The Houston office opened at the beginning of February when former Kirkland attorneys Sean T. Wheeler and Debbie P. Yee joined Paul Weiss. Wheeler leads the Houston location, with Yee joining as a partner in the M&A group. "Jennifer is a highly skilled M&A lawyer specializing in energy and infrastructure," Wheeler said in a prepared statement. "Her proven track record advising clients in these spaces on their most important transactions makes her an invaluable addition to our growing Houston team." Gasser's practice counsels clients, primarily in the energy and infrastructure industries, on matters related to mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, and joint ventures, according to the firm's announcement. Her notable transactions over the past several years include assisting EQT Corp. with forming a $3.5 billion joint venture with Blackstone Credit & Insurance and with EQT's $35 billion merger with Equitrans Midstream Corporation. "Jennifer's arrival marks another key step in the continued buildout of our Houston team, and we are excited to welcome her to the firm," Scott A. Barshay, chairman of Paul Weiss, said in a prepared statement. Gasser earned her law degree from the University of Texas School of Law in 2015.

Mar 3

2 min

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison has added a third Kirkland & Ellis M&A partner to its new office in Houston, a market experiencing heavy interest and hiring from Big Law firms this year. Kirkland partner Jennifer Gasser joined Paul Weiss on Tuesday as a partner in the M&A group within the corporate department. Her practice focuses on M&A, divestitures and joint ventures in the energy and infrastructure sectors. In early February, Paul Weiss announced its move into Houston and the hiring of Kirkland M&A partner Sean Wheeler, who will serve as co-chair of global M&A and head of the Houston office, and Wheeler's longtime colleague, Kirkland M&A partner Debbie Yee. “Jennifer’s arrival marks another key step in the continued buildout of our Houston team, and we are excited to welcome her to the firm,” Paul Weiss chairman Scott Barshay wrote in a press release. Wheeler wrote that Gasser's "proven track record" advising clients in energy and infrastructure on important transactions makes her an "invaluable addition" to the team in Houston. “Jennifer is a highly skilled M&A lawyer," he wrote. Gasser could not immediately be reached for a comment on her move. In a press release, she wrote that she has been impressed for a long time by the caliber of work her new firm handles. “I look forward to collaborating with my new colleagues and expanding the firm’s leading capabilities within Houston, a hotbed of activity for energy and infrastructure,” she wrote. According to Paul Weiss, Gasser has recently represented EQT Corp. in multiple transactions, including a midstream joint venture with Blackstone Credit & Insurance and a merger with Equitrans Midstream Corp.; Sandbrook Capital in its acquisition of Bernhard Capital Partners’ equity interests in United Utility Services and Electro Rent Corp.’s equity interests in Intellirent; Cloverleaf Infrastructure in its sale of powered land to Vantage Data Centers for development of a data center campus; Celanese in the divestment of its Micromax portfolio of products to Element Solutions,; and ONEOK, Inc. in its acquisition of Global Infrastructure Partners’ equity interests in Medallion Midstream. A spokesperson for Kirkland provided this comment on Gasser's departure: “We wish Jennifer well in her new role.”

Mar 3

2 min

Laredo Petroleum, Inc. (NYSE: LPI) has announced the signing of a purchase and sale agreement to divest certain non-operated properties in Howard County for US$110 million, subject to customary closing price adjustments. The transaction is expected to close in October 2022, with an effective date of August 1, 2022. Latham & Watkins LLP represents Laredo Petroleum, Inc. in the transaction with a Houston-based team led by partners Stephen Szalkowski and John Greer, with associates Shawn Beloin and Austin Sheehy. Advice was also provided on tax matters by partner Jim Cole, with associate Dylan White; and on finance matters by partner Matthew Jones, with associate Max Fin.~~

Aug 17

1 min

ExxonMobil has announced an agreement with Air Liquide to support the production of low-carbon hydrogen and low-carbon ammonia at ExxonMobil’s Baytown, Texas facility. The planned hydrogen production facility will be the world’s largest, expected to produce one billion cubic feet of low-carbon hydrogen daily and more than one million tons of ammonia annually while capturing more than 98% of associated CO2 emissions. Latham & Watkins LLP advised ExxonMobil in the transaction with a Houston-based deal team led by partners Chris Peponis and Justin T. Stolte, with associates Shawn Beloin and Jeffrey Romano. Advice was provided on tax matters by Houston partner Jim Cole; and on environmental matters by Orange County partner Josh Bledsoe.~~

Jul 3

1 min