DALLAS – Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, the nation's top bond counsel, will create a public finance team in a new Houston office made up of 20 attorneys across several specialties.
Although the hires haven't been announced, the firm expects to name the attorneys after they leave their current firms, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.
The initial public finance team will have four bond lawyers and one tax lawyer, according to the firm, with others possibly joining later. Orrick tax partner Larry Sobel, based in Los Angeles, will be spending part of his time in the Houston office.
"We have long wanted to be part of the Texas public finance community," said Roger Davis, national chair of public finance for Orrick in San Francisco. "Texas generates a significant volume of public finance transactions, consistently ranking second or third in the country, with lots of interesting public sector clients, projects and financings, and high quality public finance lawyers."
Orrick worked on 391 deals valued at $37.6 billion in 2015, making it the top municipal bond counsel with a 10% market share. Those deals represented a nearly 24% increase from 2014.
Other practice areas at the Houston office will include energy and infrastructure, electric power, renewable energy, oil and gas, Latin America and litigation and intellectual property.
