Just six months after moving from Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft to Bracewell & Giuliani, oil and gas finance lawyer Michael Niebruegge has changed firms again. Niebruegge is now a partner in the Houston office of Willkie Farr & Gallagher. The firm launched its Houston operation in November 2014 amid growing competition by global law firms for a share of the energy legal market.
Niebruegge handles a wide range of financing matters – upstream, midstream, and downstream – for his clients. He specializes in secured lending transactions such as syndicated loans, mezzanine and second-lien loans, project loans, commodity agreements, and securitizations. Niebruegge also oversees negotiations among creditors and debtors and advises on lien purchases and sales.
At the time of his move to Bracewell in August 2014, Niebruegge told IFLR1000 that he expected the exploration and production boom underway in the United States to continue for some time, especially if exports kept going strong. “They’re now exporting some crude oil liquids and they also continue to grant permits to LNG terminals to export LNG,” he said.
Niebruegge holds a J.D. from Cornell University and a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University.