As of May 24, former DLA Piper U.S. energy practice Co-Chair Drew Baldinger is a new Partner in the Houston office of New York firm Skadden Arps Meagher & Flom. Baldinger has brought to a close six years at DLA Piper, during which he also served as Vice-Chair of the M&A practice. Earlier in his career, Baldinger was an Associate for Skadden for five years.
The global head of Skadden’s energy and infrastructure group, Lance Brasher, highlighted Baldinger’s full spectrum of experience with private equity transactions in energy sectors, including upstream, midstream, and renewable energy projects. Baldinger, in turn, referred to Skadden’s energy and transactional practices as “among the best in the world.” Eight partners based across offices in Washington, D.C., Hong Kong, New York, and Houston make up the firm’s energy and infrastructure group.
The addition of Baldinger brings Skadden’s Houston office to 26 lawyers. Opened in 1993, the firm’s only Texas location includes Securities Partner and office head Noelle Reed, Litigation Partner Allen Lanstra, and M&A Partners Eric Otness and Cody Carper.
Two April moves at Skadden included adding Partner Kathleen Saunders Gregor to the tax controversy and litigation group in the Boston office and adding Corporate Partner Raymond Bogenrief in Chicago. Saunders Gregor arrived from Ropes & Gray, and Bogenrief came from White & Case.
Skadden also lost talent recently. In April, China practice head Julie Gao left to become Chief Financial Officer at ByteDance, which owns TikTok. In March, the new San Francisco office of Debevoise & Plimpton brought over Skadden veteran trial lawyer John Neukom. Neukom joined Debevoise’s IP litigation group.
For the first three months of 2022, Skadden led Refinitiv’s global M&A legal advisory league table by deal value. During that quarter, the firm supported 49 deals worth almost $146 billion.
