Amid intense competition among global law firms in the corporate legal market of Texas, the latest firm to ramp up its corporate finance and private equity practice is Sidley Austin.
William Howell, who previously practiced law at Baker Botts, joins Sidley as a partner in Dallas. Howell advises investment banks, corporations, and issuers on securities, M&A, and private equity transactions. His clients are active in numerous sectors including technology, telecommunications, energy, retail, and hospitality.
In a discussion with IFLR1000, Howell mentioned his past experience with lawyers who have recently joined Sidley in Dallas. The city has seen a high degree of lateral movement in recent years, including the departure of partners from Weil Gotshal & Manges.
“A large part of the group here in Dallas came from Weil, and I’ve been across the table from some of the Weil lawyers at various parts of my career,” Howell commented.
Howell said that while Dallas is in some ways a more diverse economy than Houston, Dallas is still feeling the impact of low energy prices. While many people view the downward trend in the oil sector as fostering either restructuring or buying opportunities for large energy companies, it remains to be seen how the trend will play out in the longer term. Still, some sectors are quite healthy. Howell cited technology, retail, and hospitality as sectors enjoying strong deal flow.
Another factor that Howell sees as having slowed capital markets activity is the stock market’s volatility.
“People are trying to figure out when the volatility’s going to stop. Until the market stabilizes, we’re going to see a little bit of a choppy road for capital markets transactions,” Howell stated.
Howell went on to reflect on the growth of Texas, and Dallas specifically, as popular venues for corporate transactions.
“The competitiveness of Texas really picked up when oil was $100 a barrel. People thought that Texas was a really healthy economy and a good long term play for national firms where they hadn’t necessarily had a lot of focus, or they had been putting most of their resources into offices on both coasts. They now saw Texas as a long-term player in the national and global market and started to invest more heavily, first in Houston, and now more recently in Dallas,” he said.
Howell studied law at Duke University School of Law.