Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

A four-lawyer team from Haynes and Boone has joined Shearman & Sterling in Houston, adding a capital markets practice to the office.

Bill Nelson and Kristina Trauger joined Shearman as partners Monday, along with counsel Judy Little and John Menke.

Bill Nelson.

The team, which does both debt and equity transactions for issuers and underwriters in the oil and gas industry, expands the Shearman office's oil and gas practice. The group also complements the firm's global energy group, which works in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Latin America.

Hugh Tucker, the head of Shearman's Texas practice, said the firm's growth plan for Houston has had capital markets on the short list.

"It's always been part of the game plan for opening in Houston, to really be able to deliver the services to the clients in the energy space," he said. "We kind of got the oil and gas acquisition and divestitures team in place and we always needed the capital markets piece."

Shearman launched its Houston office in May with six partners who came from Baker Botts, Thompson & Knight and Jones Day. The office has grown to 20 lawyers.

Kristina Trauger.

Nelson, in addition to doing capital markets work, will lead the Houston office. He is a former member of the board of directors and a co-chair of the capital markets practice at Haynes and Boone.

He declined to identify clients, but he said the team's capital markets practice will benefit from Shearman's bigger reach.

"When you look at the changing market here in Houston, getting to a firm that has a strong New York office, strong global platform and was a leader in capital markets and M&A was very important," he said. "Here in Texas, with the shale revolution and the oil patch, the companies have only gotten larger, so this bigger platform is very important to us."

Shearman partner David Beveridge also said clients wanted the firm to have capital markets lawyers on the ground in Houston.

In March, Shearman moved into Texas with the opening of an office in Austin led initially with eight lateral hires who came from Andrews Kurth Kenyon prior to that firm's merger with Hunton & Williams.

Further Reading:

Shearman & Sterling Launches Houston Office With Six Partners From Three Firms

Shearman & Sterling Opens Austin Office with Eight Lawyers from Andrews Kurth

It's Official: Andrews Kurth and Hunton & Williams Will Merge