Vinson & Elkins has promoted 11 lawyers to partner, effective Jan. 1, 2018: Marisa Secco in Austin;Peter Marshall in Dallas; Shamus Crosby, Lina Dimachkieh, James Garrett and Guy Gribov in Houston; Federico Fruhbeck, Dan Graham and Louise Woods in London; Lawrence Elbaum in New York; and Margaret Peloso in Washington, D.C.
“These lawyers exemplify V&E’s commitment to client service, professionalism and collaboration,” V&E Chairman Mark Kelly said. “They have demonstrated exceptional ability in their respective practices, and we are pleased to announce their promotions.”
The new partners represent five of the firm’s key practice areas: complex commercial litigation, environmental and natural resources, finance, mergers and acquisitions/capital markets and tax.
“We are appreciative of the hard work and leadership this incredibly talented group of lawyers has shown,” said V&E Managing PartnerScott Wulfe. “As we wrap up the firm’s centennial year, we look forward to the next 100 years and the continued impact they will have on the firm.”
The following is a list of the firm’s new partners by practice:
Complex Commercial Litigation
Lawrence Elbaum, New York. Elbaum is a litigator and business advisor with more than a decade of experience defending public and private companies in complex securities, commercial and bankruptcy litigation and regulatory investigations throughout the Unites States. As one of the leaders of V&E’s Shareholder Activism Response Team, he leverages his experience to counsel senior management and boards of public companies with respect to shareholder activism, corporate governance and strategic investor relations. His notable recent representations in this area include the defenses of proxy fights and other shareholder activism campaigns against Simpson Manufacturing, Fred’s Pharmacy, Fiesta Restaurant Group, magicJack, Matrix Service Company, Sito Mobile, Senomyx, Old Point Financial, Asta Funding and Stratus Properties.
Marisa Secco, Austin. Secco represents individuals and entities in commercial disputes, tax controversies, restructuring litigation and civil appeals. She served as Rules Attorney for the Supreme Court of Texas from 2011-2013, giving her a unique understanding of Texas procedure, and was named in 2014 as one of 20 “Winning Women” by Texas Lawyer. Among her notable recent representations, Secco obtained complete dismissal on behalf of four Texas cities of a declaratory judgment suit in Texas state court challenging a regulatory proceeding, obtained complete dismissal of a WARN Act class action against an oil and gas services company in the Western District of Texas, is defending a Fortune 1000 energy company on appeal in a lawsuit challenging a major commercial transaction in Pennsylvania state court and is defending a foreign monetary authority in two adversary proceedings in bankruptcy court in the Southern District of New York.
Louise Woods, London. Woods focuses her practice on international commercial arbitration and litigation and investor-state disputes. She has experience under all the major institutional arbitration rules, across a wide range of industry sectors, including financial services, real estate development and energy. Woods’ experience highlights include representing a Saudi national in a dispute with the Indonesian state (resulting in a precedent-setting decision on jurisdiction), representing U.S. investors in an expropriation and unfair treatment claim against a Central American state, representing the Panama Canal Authority in ongoing ICC arbitration and High Court litigation relating to aspects of the $5.25 billion Panama Canal expansion project and representing a U.S. energy company in a dispute with UK tax authorities. Woods currently serves on the board of ArbitralWomen, an international organization dedicated to the promotion of female practitioners in international dispute resolution.
Environmental and Natural Resources
Margaret Peloso, Washington, D.C. Peloso advises on climate change risk management and works on a variety of complex environmental litigation matters, with an emphasis on the changing regulatory environment and issues related to expert witnesses and the use of scientific evidence in litigation. She also deals extensively with the notice and comment process on a wide range of federal environmental regulations. Her experience highlights include advising clients on EPA’s proposed financial assurance requirements for the hard rock mining industry, litigation and expert witness strategy related to one of the nation’s largest Superfund sediment sites and EPA’s rulemaking regarding waters of the United States. Peloso’s book discussing the ways in which the structure of the United States' legal system shapes adaptation, titled “Adapting to Rising Sea Levels: Legal Challenges and Opportunities,” was published this year by Carolina Academic Press.
Finance
Guy Gribov, Houston. Gribov’s practice focuses on syndicated and structured/mezzanine financings and preferred equity investments, primarily in the energy space, including numerous matters involving oil and gas exploration and production, oilfield services, refining, distribution, storage and transportation and retail. He represents mezzanine funds, publicly and privately held corporate borrowers and issuers, private equity funds and commercial banks. Among his notable representations, Gribov advised Concho Resources Inc. in a $3 billion secured reserve-based revolving credit facility, Lario Oil & Gas Co. in a $600 million secured revolving credit facility for parent company O’s Companies, Inc, Caerus Operating LLC in a $1 billion secured reserve-based revolving credit facility, Apollo Investment Corp. in numerous mezzanine loans and other structured investments to domestic oil and gas producers and Stellus Capital Management in multiple preferred equity and structured debt investments in oil and gas producers.
Mergers and Acquisitions/Capital Markets
Shamus Crosby, Houston. Crosby’s practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, capital markets transactions, including initial public offerings and public and private offerings of debt and equity securities, private equity investments and buyouts, joint ventures and corporate governance matters. His clients include public and private companies, private equity funds and investment banking firms. Among his notable M&A representations, Crosby advised Double Eagle Energy Permian, a portfolio company of Apollo Natural Resources Partners, in its $2.8 billion sale of assets to Parsley Energy and Centennial Resource Production, a portfolio company of Natural Gas Partners, in its approximately $1.39 billion sale of the company to Silver Run Acquisition Corporation. His capital markets experience highlights include advising Jagged Peak Energy, Inc., a portfolio company of Quantum Energy Partners, in its $474 million initial public offering of common stock and MPLX LP in its $1 billion private offering of convertible preferred equity securities.
Federico Fruhbeck, London. Fruhbeck’s practice focuses on capital market transactions and private equity M&A, with an emphasis on high-yield bond issuances. He has a particular focus on complex cross-border transactions in Spain, Italy, Germany and France. Among his notable representations, Fruhbeck advised KKR, Blackstone, Apax and First Reserve on several M&A transactions and high-yield financings in Europe (including KKR’s acquisition of Saba and its IPO of KION AG, Blackstone’s acquisition and financing of Alliance Automotive Group and Apax’s financing of Travelex), as well as Gestamp Automoción’s US$4 billion IPO, Grupo Antolín in multiple bond offerings and Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan in connection with multiple offerings in Spain (including CIRSA, Ence and NH Hoteles). Fruhbeck recently represented OHL in its tender offer of OHL México for US$1 billion.
James Garrett, Houston. Garrett’s principal areas of practice are private equity and mergers and acquisitions. He counsels private equity funds, their portfolio companies, and a variety of public and private companies in connection with strategic investments, joint ventures, mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, as well as on general corporate matters. Garrett’s recent private equity experience includes representing TPG Sixth Street Partners in the formation of Blackline Midstream, EnCap Investments in its $250 million equity line of capital investment in Black Swan Oil & Gas and Lucid Energy Group, an EnCap Flatrock portfolio company, in connection with a $250 million preferred investment from Magnetar Capital. His recent M&A experience includes advising Rice Energy in its $6.7 billion merger with EQT Corp. and NCS Multistage Holdings in its acquisition of Spectrum Tracer Services.
Dan Graham, London. Graham advises private equity funds, special situations funds, institutional investors and alternative credit and capital providers in relation to public and private mergers and acquisitions, venture and growth capital transactions, joint ventures, distressed transactions and buyouts. His practice has a particular focus on complex cross-border private equity transactions in emerging markets and innovative special situations transactions throughout Europe. Graham’s notable transactional experience includes advising an emerging markets focused private equity fund on its successful offer to acquire APR Energy plc and representing an international private equity fund on the acquisition of N&W Global Vending, one of the world’s largest vending machine manufacturers, from Equistone Partners Europe and Investcorp Bank.
Peter Marshall, Dallas. Marshall represents public companies, private equity funds and other financial sponsors in connection with acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures, structured financing transactions and other strategic investments. He works with clients investing across a wide range of industries, including technology, financial services, healthcare, infrastructure, traditional and renewable energy, manufacturing and consumer retail. Marshall’s experience highlights include advising Blackstone in its approximately $2 billion acquisition of EagleClaw Midstream and its approximately $1.57 billion acquisition of a minority interest in the Rover pipeline project. Over the past two years he has also advised a large financial investor in its acquisition of ownership stakes in more than 20 growth companies across a variety of industries and represented special committees of the boards of directors of USMD Holdings (now part of WellMed Medical Management) and Phillips 66 Partners.
Tax
Lina Dimachkieh, Houston. Dimachkieh’s practice focuses on the U.S. federal income tax aspects of complex domestic and cross-border transactions, and she represents many of the firm’s clients in a variety of matters, including mergers and acquisitions, capital markets transactions, reorganizations, spin-offs and partnership transactions. Among her notable representations, Dimachkieh advised on the tax issues pertaining to Rice Energy’s $6.7 billion unwinding of its Up-C structure and associated merger with EQT Corp., Select Energy Services’ $1.3 billion merger with Rockwater Energy Solutions, the $1.575 billion sale by TPG of Nexeo Solutions, a chemical and plastics distribution company, to WL Ross Holding Corp. and a Riverstone Holdings portfolio company’s Reverse Morris Trust combination with, and the subsequent $5.2 billion take-private of, Talen Energy Corp., one of the largest independent power producers in the United States.
Celebrating its 100th year, Vinson & Elkins is an international law firm with approximately 700 lawyers across 16 offices worldwide. For more information, please contact Courtney Binick at +1.713.758.2333.
