O’Melveny announced today that a five-partner corporate team, specializing in M&A, private equity, capital markets, energy, tax, and public-company corporate counseling, has joined the firm’s Dallas office. The lawyers—Richard Whitfield “Whit” Roberts, Jack E. Jacobsen, Jason A. Schumacher, Will S. Becker, and Christine “Chrissy” Williford Metcalf—were partners at Locke Lord LLP, where Roberts held leadership positions firmwide and in the Dallas office, Jacobsen was Co-Chair of the Corporate and Transactional Department, and Schumacher was Co-Chair of the Energy Practice Group.
All five will be partners at O’Melveny, bringing extensive experience in the energy, business services, technology, healthcare, consumer, hospitality, and industrial and manufacturing sectors. Jacobsen, Metcalf, and Roberts join O’Melveny’s Mergers & Acquisitions practice, Schumacher joins the firm’s Project Development & Real Estate practice, and Becker joins the Tax practice.
With the team’s arrival, O’Melveny has 15 partners in Texas, just seven months after opening its two offices in the state, in Austin and Dallas. With O’Melveny’s global resources at their fingertips, its Texas attorneys make up one of the state’s most highly rated corporate, energy, M&A, restructuring, tax, and litigation teams.
“It’s a pleasure to welcome Whit, Jack, Jason, Will and Chrissy to the firm,” said O’Melveny Chair Bradley J. Butwin. “They bring long records of leadership in the Texas bar and in the Dallas community. They are trusted advisors whose clients turn to them again and again on their most important matters, and their dedication to public service meshes perfectly with the O’Melveny culture. Their top-rated practices complement our own, giving us greater ability to meet the evolving needs of our diverse clients in Texas, and around the world.”
– Whit Roberts has a broad corporate practice, representing private equity sponsors, large family offices, entrepreneurs, and public and private companies—including start-ups—in M&A, equity and debt finance, and other strategic commercial, corporate and joint venture matters. Recognized nationally, he has been ranked for seven straight years by The Best Lawyers in America in its M&A and Corporate Law categories, and he is a fixture on Texas Super Lawyers and D Magazine’s “Best Lawyers in Dallas” lists. In 2020, he was also named a “Texas Trailblazer” by Texas Lawyer. Roberts studied political theory at the University of Kent at Canterbury before earning his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law. He is a member of the Tocqueville Society of the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, the Dallas Citizens Council, the Board of Governors of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Texas Bar Foundation, the Dallas Bar Foundation, and the Executive Committee of the Advisory Board of Advocates for Community Transformation. He also is a former member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the Dallas Regional Chamber of Commerce, and a life member of the Liberal Arts Advisory Council of the University of Texas at Austin.
– Jack Jacobsen also has a diverse corporate practice, from middle-market M&A and capital markets to investment transactions and bankruptcy work, for public and private companies and private equity sponsors. He focuses on the energy, consumer, healthcare, media, and manufacturing sectors. He also counsels private equity and family office clients. Jacobsen has been named to The Best Lawyers in America list for nine years in a row in the M&A and Corporate Law categories. He earned his J.D. from the University of Kansas Law School. He is a Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation, the nation’s largest charitably funded bar foundation.
– Jason Schumacher represents oil, gas, and energy clients on a wide range of transactional and project matters, including upstream and midstream M&A, joint ventures, project development, financing, and operational engagements. He does substantial work with pipeline companies and upstream companies on complex gas, crude and water midstream gathering, transportation, processing and disposal arrangements. He also maintains an energy finance practice involving novel structures, including volumetric production payments, prepayments, net profits interests, Drillco’s, and securitizations. He has been named to The Best Lawyers in America’s list of top Oil and Gas lawyers, D Magazine’s “Best Lawyers in Dallas” list in the same category, and Super Lawyers’ list of Rising Stars. He also is a past president of the Energy Section of the Dallas Bar Association and the Texas Energy Council. He earned his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law and a BBA in Finance from Abilene Christian University.
– Will Becker advises clients on federal and Texas tax matters and is an authority in such specialized areas as REIT transactions and investment and production tax credits for renewable energy projects. He has long been ranked on national lists of tax experts by The Best Lawyers in America, Super Lawyers, and Legal 500. Becker earned his J.D. from Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law, and an LL.M. in Tax from Northwestern University, with honors.
– Chrissy Metcalf focuses on M&A, capital markets, and public company reporting for her clients, which range from large public companies to local start-ups in the business services, healthcare, technology, medical device, energy, and consumer sectors. She has been named a “Texas Rising Star” by Super Lawyers for seven straight years, and, in 2020 and 2021, D Magazine called her one of Texas’s “Best Lawyers Under 40.” Metcalf earned her J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law where she was on the Texas Review on Entertainment and Sports Law and the Texas International Law Journal. Chrissy serves on the board of directors of the Cancer Support Community North Texas and as an advisor to the board of directors of Together We Thrive.
“We’re delighted to continue our Texas expansion by bringing on these top-notch lawyers—leaders in both their practice areas and their local communities,” said O’Melveny Corporate Department Co-Chair C. Brophy Christensen. “We are excited by their practices’ many synergies with our existing practices, and the opportunities their arrival offers to better serve our clients in the industries we already know so well. Our clients inside and outside of Texas will greatly value the group’s broad and deep experience.”
Last month, standout litigator Kristin Cope joined O’Melveny’s Dallas office following the arrival, in August 2021, of nationally ranked litigator Timothy Durst. The Dallas office also includes partners Louis Strubeck Jr., Scott Paul Drake, Douglas Wabner, and Gregory Wilkes. O’Melveny’s Austin office grew in November as renowned energy sector dealmaker Monica Hwang joined partners Phillip Oldham, Katie Coleman, and Benjamin Hallmark, and senior counsel Rex VanMiddlesworth.
Source: www.omm.com
