Paul Hastings Houston Office Expansion Continues with Addition of Energy-Focused M&A Partner

July 11, 2013

Houston, TX - Paul Hastings LLP, a leading global law firm, announced today that Jimmy Vallee has joined the firm as a partner with the M&A practice in Houston. Mr. Vallee joins from Jones Day, where he was a partner. He is a highly regarded M&A lawyer with a diverse energy client base.

“A key component of our global growth strategy is to build a strong and balanced energy-focused capital markets, finance, M&A, and master limited partnership (MLP) practice in Houston,” said Elizabeth Noe, chair of the Corporate practice at Paul Hastings. “Jimmy’s extensive M&A and corporate finance practice focused on the energy industry provides a key element in completing the foundation for the Energy practice we are building in Houston and globally,” she added.

“We have made significant advances in Houston toward our strategy of developing a robust energy practice,” said Greg Nelson, chair of the Houston office. “Jimmy’s practice will complement the recent addition of capital markets specialist Gislar Donnenberg and will add a critical capability to our energy team,” he added.

Mr. Vallee has extensive experience representing clients in mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and securities transactions, joint ventures, and corporate governance matters, with a particular focus on domestic and international energy companies involved in oil and gas exploration and production (E&P), midstream, and oil field services industries. Mr. Vallee recently advised OGE Energy in connection with its $11 billion joint venture with CenterPoint Energy to create one of the largest master limited partnerships in the midstream industry. In addition, Mr. Vallee recently advised Jefferies LLC in connection with its role as financial advisor to Copano Energy in its $5 billion merger with Kinder Morgan.

Mr. Vallee’s arrival follows the April 2012 opening of the firm’s office in Houston and the arrival of three energy-focused transactional partners: Greg Nelson, Paris Theofanidis, and Steve Tredennick. The firm also recently announced the hire of Sam Cooper, who joined the firm as a partner with the Litigation practice in Houston and Lorenzo Parola, who joined the Energy and Corporate practices in Milan.

Paul Hastings LLP is a leading global law firm with offices in Asia, Europe, and the United States. We provide innovative legal solutions to financial institutions and Fortune 500 companies. Please visit www.paulhastings.com for more information.