Jones Walker LLP announced today that David R. Roth and Shahid A. Ghauri have joined the firm’s Houston office. Mr. Roth is a partner in the Real Estate Practice Group and Mr. Ghauri is a partner in the Business & Commercial Transactions Practice Group.
Mr. Roth has more than two decades of broad-based transactional experience working both in-house and in private practice with public and private companies. He counsels clients in a broad range of transactions and financing in the energy industry, including projects involving electric power; onshore and offshore oil and gas exploration and production; transportation and pipelines; liquefied natural gas processing; commodity marketing and trading; and ancillary services such as equipment supply and seismic analysis.
“We are pleased to have David join our firm. His extensive experience in the energy industry will be an asset to our clients,” said William H. Hines, Managing Partner of Jones Walker.
Prior to joining Jones Walker, Mr. Roth served as general counsel of Northern Star Generation LLC, a multiple private equity fund held power-generation company with operations across the United States. Previously, he was assistant general counsel at Dynegy, an international, publicly-owned provider of power, capacity, and ancillary services, where he headed the Finance and Corporate Transactions legal group. Mr. Roth began his career in private practice, representing Fortune 100 and other clients in energy-related and corporate transactions; corporate, project, and structured financings; and other hybrid debt-equity transactions.
Mr. Roth earned his juris doctor degree from the University of Texas School of Law and his bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Michigan. He is a member of the State Bars of Texas and California.
Mr. Ghauri is a seasoned oil and gas attorney with more than 15 years of multidisciplinary experience. He will lead the efforts of the Texas oil and gas transactional practice.
Mr. Ghauri has acted as lead counsel in numerous mergers and acquisitions, joint venture, project development, and finance transactions in the oil and gas industry. He has served as in-house counsel and practiced in top-tier law firms. His clients include E&P companies, midstream companies, petrochemical companies, oilfield service providers, private equity funds, and lending institutions.
Most recently, Mr. Ghauri was the Assistant General Counsel of BHP Billiton Petroleum. He was responsible for the legal function of the company in respect of its shale assets in the United States, primarily in the Eagle Ford, Permian, Haynesville, and Fayetteville shales. He advised the board of directors and senior management on mergers and acquisitions and joint venture activity, public reporting issues, contracts, supply and procurement, compliance matters, regulatory and environmental issues, landowner and royalty disputes, and litigation.
In addition to his domestic practice, Mr. Ghauri has a substantial amount of international experience. He has represented host governments, and national and international oil companies with respect to structuring exploration and development programs in most of the world’s producing regions. He has negotiated and drafted concessions, production sharing contracts, risk service agreements, licenses, joint operating, participation, and joint venture agreements. Prior to commencing his legal career, Mr. Ghauri was a wireline logging engineer for Schlumberger.
“Shahid is a great addition to our transactional team in Houston,” said Joshua A. Norris, head of the Jones Walker Houston office. “His deep knowledge about the oil and gas industry will be a valuable resource to our clients.”
Mr. Ghauri earned his juris doctor degree from the University of Houston Law Center and both a master’s degree and a bachelor’s degree in science in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. He is a member of the State Bars of Texas and Pennsylvania, the Houston Producers’ Forum, the Society of Petroleum Engineers, and the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators.
Source: www.joneswalker.com
