Houston Office

The Houston office has experienced significant growth since its opening in January 2007 and has nearly 60 attorneys practicing across a range of the firm's core areas of law.

As part of an effort to better serve our clients in the south and central United States, our expansion included the addition of several partners from the Houston offices of prominent national firms, allowing us to better respond to business growth and expanding client needs in both the United States and abroad. Drawing upon the vast resources of one of the nation's largest firms, our Houston office is uniquely positioned to provide current and prospective clients with a wide range of legal services, from our lawyers based in Houston and across the firm's 22 offices around the world.

Lawyers in the Houston office handle issues related to the following areas of law:

• Business & Finance (energy transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and international/cross border transactions)
• Intellectual Property (including patent and trade secret litigation)
• Labor and Employment
• Litigation (appeals/special issues, commercial litigation, insurance recovery, and product liability and toxic tort)

Business and Finance

Our Business and Finance attorneys in Houston provide counsel to clients in a diverse range of industry sectors, including energy, life sciences, technology, media and entertainment, financial services, shipping, and retail. The Energy Transactions Practice structures and implements power, oil, and gas and alternative energy projects worldwide, from negotiation of concessions, production sharing contracts and other investment agreements to joint venture, unitization and operating arrangements, and from LNG, generation and pipeline construction to oil, gas, LNG, and power purchase and sale contracts.

We have particular depth in energy mergers and acquisitions in our Houston office, including lawyers specializing in handling these types of transactions in Latin America. Our lawyers advise clients on a broad range of transactions, including negotiated purchases and divestitures by public and private companies, tender offers, leveraged buyouts, and "going private" transactions. We also handle crossborder M&A transactions, representing multinational clients in stock and asset acquisitions and sales in the United States and elsewhere.

Intellectual Property

Our lawyers in the Intellectual Property Practice handle litigation relating to patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, and unfair competition disputes in both trial and appellate courts throughout the nation. The patent litigation team in Houston routinely handles matters across a range of industries for clients in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, the nation's most popular venue for patent litigation. Joining a Litigation Practice that spans 18 offices worldwide and with more than 350 litigators, our Houston attorneys add depth and breadth to the firm's growing Litigation and Intellectual Property Practices. Together they cover a full spectrum of industries, with decades of experience representing Fortune 100 companies and large multinational clients.

Labor and Employment

Our Labor and Employment Practice team members focus on areas such as wage and hour counseling and litigation, ERISA litigation, systemic employment litigation, Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower cases, labor relations, and workforce change issues. Their clients encompass a broad range of industries, including energy, oil and gas, mining, transportation, technology and telecommunications, construction, and manufacturing.

Litigation

Our U.S. Supreme Court and Appellate Litigation Practice expanded into Texas in 2008 with the addition of Houston partner Ted Cruz, the former Solicitor General of Texas. Our appellate lawyers have not only litigated before the Supreme Court of the United States, but also regularly appear before federal and state appellate courts across the country. They have advised clients on many issues involving numerous practice areas, including antitrust, bankruptcy, business and commercial litigation, energy, insurance, intellectual property, labor, securities, and tax.

Our Commercial Litigation Practice represents many well-known companies in a wide range of matters, from single-issue disputes to complex, multiparty cases and "bet the company" class action litigation. We frequently represent the energy and financial services industries and have successfully handled major fraud and corporate disputes.

Our Insurance Recovery lawyers manage liability by maximizing and preserving the value of insurance assets in a cost-effective manner. We also advise on the procurement of insurance, the creation of captives and finite risk vehicles, and the insurance aspects of mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructurings, and reorganizations.

Our Product Liability and Toxic Tort Practice draws upon the substantive knowledge of lawyers across the firm who have worked in this area for many years. This practice offers clients developed and recognized knowledge in a variety of industries and a wide range of products, including pharmaceuticals, chemicals, asbestos, blood products, carpets, lead, latex, breast implants, contaminated food products, medical devices, building and construction products, and automatic fire sprinklers.