Richard “Rick” Frye has returned to Weil, Gotshal & Manges as a partner in the firm's private equity practice in Dallas after less than two years as a partner at Winston & Strawn.

Frye could not be reached for comment, but in a statement announcing his return to Weil, Frye said he was “thrilled” to return to the firm and its well-regarded global private equity practice.

“I look forward to collaborating with the firm's talented lawyers around the world to provide best-in-class advice to our clients,” Frye said.

Richard Frye

Frye, who does complex corporate transactions for public and private companies, private equity sponsors and portfolio companies, was an associate at Weil when he left to join the new Winston & Strawn office in Dallas in March 2017. At that time, Frye told Texas Lawyer he was impressed with his new firm's commitment to Dallas and the caliber of the lawyers the firm had brought together.

Winston & Strawn moved into the Dallas market in February 2017, opening an office with 21 lateral partners from eight firms.

Bryan Goolsby, managing partner of the Winston & Strawn office in Dallas, said Frye was a key member in helping to launch the office in early 2017. He said Frye had an outstanding opportunity to go back to Weil as a partner and to work with clients and lawyers he had worked with before.

“It's a fluid marketplace,” Goolsby said. “We hate to lose him.”

Weil executive partner Barry Wolf said in a statement that the firm is excited to welcome Frye back because of his “significant experience” in private equity that ranges across many types of transactions and industries.

“Rick has a proven record in private equity and a keen business sense,” Courtney Marcus, a co- managing partner of Weil's Dallas office and a partner in the firm's banking and finance practice, said in the statement.