Les Chambers, Ryan Chambers, Coleman Anglin and Nataliya Tipton, Babst Calland. Courtesy photoBabst Calland Opens in Texas, Merging With Oil and Gas Firm
The Pittsburgh-based firm brought on four lawyers from Chambers Law Firm in The Woodlands, near Houston.
June 05, 2019 at 04:29 PM
3 minute read
Pittsburgh-based midsize firm Babst Calland Clements and Zomnir has planted a flag in Texas by merging with the four-lawyer Chambers Law Firm in The Woodlands, near Houston.
Oil and gas attorneys Les Chambers, Ryan Chambers and Coleman Anglin are joining Babst Calland as shareholders, and Nataliya Tipton as an associate. Chambers will serve as managing shareholder of Babst Calland's new Houston office.
The addition gives 150-lawyer Babst Calland its southernmost office. The firm also has a presence in Ohio, West Virginia, New Jersey and Washington, D.C., as well as a second Pennsylvania office in State College.
Managing shareholder Donald Bluedorn II said the firm spent about eight months looking for a firm to merge with in Texas. He said Babst Calland had a number of existing clients in the Appalachian region that were also involved in oil and gas activity in the Permian Basin and Mid-Continent region, which includes Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma.
“It didn't make sense to us to bootstrap our way into that by having Pittsburgh lawyers do work down there,” Bluedorn said.
Meanwhile, Chambers said his firm was looking to grow when Babst Calland started looking for a merger partner. He and the other three lawyers making the move handle all areas of legal and regulatory matters, particularly oil and gas, property and transactional law.
The Chambers firm had actually experienced growth when commodities prices initially dropped a few years ago, Chambers said, “because the larger firms weren't competing with us” on rates. But in late 2016 and early 2017, the firm began to pull back on its growth voluntarily, he said, to accommodate for its clients' slowing production.
“Once prices started rising again we started seeing more activity,” Chambers said. “We were at a point where we really needed to probably double in size.”
The two firms' leaders had known of each other for a while. Chambers and Babst Calland have some existing clients in common, Bluedorn and Chambers said, though they declined to name them.
Chambers said his firm's lease recently expired, so he is currently negotiating a lease on new space. That office will have room for more lawyers, Bluedorn said.
“Our expectation is over time we will grow,” he said.
|Read More
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View All
Judge Rejects Exxon Mobil's Challenge to $725M Benzene Verdict, Adds $91M in Delay Damages
3 minute read Exxon Mobil Claims Juror's Online Posts Show Bias Behind $725M Benzene Verdict
4 minute read
ExxonMobil Argues Co-Defendant's Settlement Barred Claims That Yielded $725M Benzene Verdict
3 minute readTrending Stories
- 1Judge Denies Sean Combs Third Bail Bid, Citing Community Safety
- 2Republican FTC Commissioner: 'The Time for Rulemaking by the Biden-Harris FTC Is Over'
- 3NY Appellate Panel Cites Student's Disciplinary History While Sending Negligence Claim Against School District to Trial
- 4A Meta DIG and Its Nvidia Implications
- 5Deception or Coercion? California Supreme Court Grants Review in Jailhouse Confession Case
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250
