Sidley Austin and Paul Hastings are the two latest Am Law 100 firms looking to capitalize on Houstons booming energy sector. But unlike a host of competitors that have also staked out turf in the city in recent years, these newcomers entered the red-hot market in a way that sets them apart: Rather than hire laterals in batches, they handpicked individual lawyers from the local talent pool.
Paul Hastings arrived on the scene in April with the hiring of three lawyers from three different firms: former Baker Botts tax partner Greg Nelson (who chairs the new office), exVinson & Elkins finance partner Paris Theofanidis, and private equity and M&A partner Steven Tredennick, who joined from Bracewell & Giuliani. Paul Hastings augmented the trio by announcing that finance and restructuring partner Kevin Fisher would relocate to Houston from San Francisco.
As The Am Law Daily reported at the time, Sidley took a somewhat more extreme version of the same approach, opening its Houston office with the addition of seven lawyers from seven firms: Locke Lord banking and finance partner Kenneth Anderson; Baker Botts litigation partner Mark Glasser; Jones Day securities and corporate governance partner J. Mark Metts; V&E project finance and M&A partner Glenn Pinkerton; McDermott Will & Emery M&A and project finance partner Sergio Pozzerle; Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld energy transactions partner James Rice III; and Mayer Brown litigation partner Steven Selsberg.
