Andrews Kurth Elects 10 New Partners for 2014

(Houston, TX)—Andrews Kurth LLP announced today the election of 10 of its lawyers to the partnership. Will S. Becker, Courtney Cochran Butler, Alison L. Chen, Courtney E. Ervin, Meghan E. Griffiths, Giji M. John, Callie A. Parker, Jeremy Reckmeyer, Alexander D. White, and Michael X. Ye will assume their new positions on January 1, 2014.

Will S. Becker | Dallas

Will's practice focuses on federal income tax matters and Texas franchise, sales and use tax matters, with an emphasis on real estate, asset securitization, corporate mergers and acquisitions and corporate spin-offs and split-offs. Will assists clients in analyzing such tax matters and their impact on corporations, S corporations, partnerships, limited liability companies, real estate investment trusts, real estate mortgage investment conduits, hedging transactions and other derivatives. Additionally, Will has assisted nonprofit clients in forming public charities and private foundations, including filing for federal income tax exemption for such entities.  Will recently represented a publicly traded company in connection with a separation and distribution transaction valued at $375 million. He also represented a medical device company in connection with an $86 million initial public offering. Will received his LL.M. in 2005, with honors, from Northwestern University School of Law, his J.D. in 2004 from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, and his B.A. in 2001 from Southwestern University.

Courtney Cochran Butler | Houston

Courtney’s corporate practice includes representing issuers and underwriters in IPOs and other public offerings and private placements of equity and debt securities and working with public and private companies in structuring and negotiating mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures. Courtney regularly advises companies regarding securities law compliance, corporate governance and financial reporting matters and works with companies in connection with proxy and shareholder, SEC reporting, and other general corporate and securities matters. In addition to her ongoing work with issuer clients, Courtney recently represented the underwriters in a $540 million public offering of common units and an $800 million public offering of registered notes by a midstream oil and gas company and represented a diversified midstream master limited partnership in its $240 million private placement of common units. She also recently represented a diversified electrical infrastructure services provider in a public merger with an electrical and mechanical solutions provider. Courtney received her J.D. in 2005, cum laude, from Tulane University Law School, where she also received a Certificate for Advanced Studies in Maritime Law, and her B.B.A in 2001 from The University of Texas.

Alison L. Chen | Houston

As a tax lawyer, Alison focuses her practice on federal income taxation of corporations, partnerships (including publicly traded partnerships) and limited liability companies. Alison advises clients on the formation of business entities, the tax consequences of mergers and acquisitions, tax-free reorganizations, joint ventures, asset-backed and mortgage backed securitization, and other various financial instruments. She also advises clients with respect to executive compensation matters, including compliance with Section 162(m) deduction limitations and Section 280G golden parachute issues. She recently represented the underwriters in connection with the $434 million IPO of Phillips 66 Partners LP and the $137 million IPO of Marlin Midstream Partners LP. In addition, Alison is currently representing the underwriters in connection with a $200 million IPO of an MLP issuer in the midstream oil and gas business. Alison received her LL.M. in Taxation in 2004 from New York University School of Law, her J.D. in 2003, cum laude, from the University of Houston Law Center and her B.A. in 2000 from The University of Texas.

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Courtney E. Ervin | Houston

Courtney is a trial lawyer. Her practice includes representing clients in complex commercial litigation in both state and federal court and arbitration. She regularly oversees cases involving contract disputes, business torts, shareholder disputes, and insurance coverage. While Courtney’s practice focuses on clients in the energy industry, she also represents clients in a multitude of other industries, including insurance, real estate, private equity and information technology. Her recent cases have included favorably settling a lengthy, multi-party oil and gas dispute pending in both state court and in arbitration, obtaining a take-nothing settlement in an insurance coverage dispute and obtaining a partial summary judgment on behalf of an insurance client on a coverage issue of first impression in the Southern District of Texas. Courtney received her J.D. in 2005, magna cum laude, from the University of Houston Law Center, where she was Publications Editor of the Houston Law Review. She earned her B.S. in psychology from Colorado State University in 2000.

Meghan E. Griffiths | Austin

Meghan has considerable experience in administrative law and litigation, judicial appeals of agency matters and energy regulatory and electric utility law. Meghan has advised clients in regulatory matters and contested proceedings before many state agencies in Texas, including the Public Utility Commission of Texas, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Texas Railroad Commission and the Texas General Land Office. She has also advised clients on federal regulatory matters involving the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. In the past year, Meghan has represented and advised Texas manufacturers in a contested multi-billion dollar utility merger, electric utility rate cases and electric market design matters. She also won a summary judgment motion dismissing a bid protest of a $10 million contract award to a rail car manufacturer by the Dallas Area Rapid Transit Authority and successfully handled multiple open records requests from competitors seeking trade secret and confidential information submitted with governmental bids. Meghan received her J.D. in 2004, cum laude, from The University of Texas School of Law and her B.A., cum laude, in Plan II Honors and Russian Literature from The University of Texas in 1995.

Giji M. John | Houston

Giji counsels clients in connection with the development and finance of domestic and international energy projects. He has extensive experience representing project sponsors, construction contractors, lenders and utilities through all stages of development, acquisitions and dispositions, joint ventures and financings. Giji’s development work includes experience in long-term offtake agreements, physical and financial swaps, engineering, procurement and construction contracts, operation and maintenance agreements, management services agreements and site services agreements. His representation has included transactions involving liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities, methanol facilities, petrochemical refineries, carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) facilities, wind energy, solar energy, natural gas-fired peaking and combined-cycle power plants, upstream oil & gas, transportation, aviation and ports. Giji recently represented the sponsor in the $5.9 billion Sabine Pass LNG Liquefaction Facility project financing—the largest North American project financing in 2013. He is also currently representing the sponsor in the negotiation of the engineering, procurement and construction contract for a post-combustion CCS facility interconnected to the W.A. Parish power plant—which, when complete, will be the first commercial-scale post-combustion CCS facility in the United States and the largest commercial-scale post-combustion CCS facility in the world. Giji earned his J.D. in 2001 from the University of Michigan Law School. He received his B.A. in 1996 from Northwestern University.

Callie A. Parker | Houston

Callie’s legal practice involves a broad range of financing and commercial real estate transactions. She has extensive experience in the representation of both lenders and borrowers in connection with private financing transactions, including both leveraged and investment grade credit facilities. Callie’s experience includes numerous cross-border and multi-currency financing transactions and spans a wide range of industries. She also regularly represents commercial real estate developers in connection with loans secured by real estate assets. Her recent transactions include the representation of the administrative agent in a $1.1 billion credit facility to the largest provider of deathcare products and services in North America and the representation of the administrative agent in a $1.7 billion credit facility to a Fortune 500 automobile retailer. Callie received her J.D. in 2004, with honors, from The University of Texas School of Law and her B.A. in 1999 from The University of Texas at Austin.

Jeremy Reckmeyer | New York

As a bankruptcy lawyer, Jeremy handles a broad range of complex corporate restructuring and financing matters. Jeremy has extensive experience representing official and ad hoc committees, debtors, strategic and financial investors and other parties in interest in complex Chapter 11 reorganizations, Chapter 11 and Chapter 7 liquidations and out-of-court restructurings. Jeremy also has extensive experience advising clients in a wide array of financing and corporate transactional matters, with an emphasis on representing issuers and investors in public and private equity and debt offerings and mergers and acquisitions in the distressed and venture capital markets. In addition, he regularly advises clients with respect to general corporate matters and securities law compliance, including Section 13 and Section 16 issues. Jeremy has recently represented significant parties in interest in some of the largest and most complex recent Chapter 11 cases in the country, including, among others, the Washington Mutual, Inc.; Tribune Company; Patriot Coal Corporation; Dynegy Holdings, LLC and THQ, Inc. Chapter 11 cases, respectively. Jeremy earned his J.D. in 2005 from Duke University School of Law and his B.A. in Philosophy in 2000 from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Alexander D. White | Houston

Alex's experience includes a range of financing, corporate and real estate matters. His experience includes the representation of buyers and sellers of commercial and residential real estate, landlords and tenants in office and retail leasing transactions and lenders and borrowers in secured lending transactions, project financings and commercial loans. Alex also works in the areas of energy, private placement of securities and mergers and acquisitions in both the health care and energy sectors. Recent transactions include the representation of a developer in the acquisition, construction and financing of multiple assisted living facilities in Texas, Florida and Georgia and the representation of a developer in connection with the acquisition, development, financing and sale of two retail projects along Interstate 10 in Houston, Texas, valued in excess of $50 million. Pending transactions include representation of a publicly traded exploration and production company in the negotiation of an office lease in excess of 120,000 square feet. Alex received his J.D. in 2005, cum laude, from Tulane University Law School and his B.S. in 2001, magna cum laude, in Finance from Bradley University.

Michael X. Ye, Ph.D. | Washington, DC

Michael is an intellectual property lawyer, who focuses his practice in the biotechnology, chemistry, bioinformatics, pharmaceuticals and medical device industries. He has extensive experience working directly with inventors and in-house counsel in the drafting and prosecution of patent applications, and provides opinions regarding patentability, validity and other issues. Michael’s practice also involves product clearance searches, product evaluations, inventorship analyses, non-disclosure agreements and licensing agreements. He also conducts due diligence in connection with mergers and acquisitions in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Michael received his J.D. in 2004 from Georgetown University Law Center. He earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 1993. In 1985 he received his B.S. in Biochemistry from Peking University.

“The addition of this new group of partners strengthens our ability to offer great service and value to our clients every day,” said Bob Jewell, Managing Partner. “Their election to the partnership is a reflection of the firm’s commitment to excellence."