Orrick opens Houston office

San-Francisco based Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe is opening a new office in Houston in a bid to make its mark on a “critically important market.”

The new office will have a founding team of about 20 partners. These will be Texas lawyers coming from the Houston offices of leading global, national and state firms, Orrick said in a statement.

“As a global law firm focused on the energy and infrastructure, technology and finance sectors, we believe Houston is a critically important market for our clients and our firm,” Orrick chairman and chief executive Mitch Zuklie explained. “Houston is a world energy capital, a hub for international business and a centre for innovation.”

The firm did not disclose the names of the partners that will be staffing the new office – it said it would do so in the coming weeks – but outlined the practice areas the founding team will be focusing on. These comprise energy and infrastructure, including power, renewables and oil and gas, as well as mergers and acquisitions, private equity, corporate finance and project development and finance in Latin America. Litigation and intellectual property, as well as public finance, will also be part of the list.

The firm has hired four partners since last June from the UK and US offices of Hogan Lovells, including Matthew Williams and John Deacon, who respectively served as that firm’s global co-head of energy & natural resources and global co-head of renewable energy. The move came as Orrick seeks to bolster its European presence in sectors including energy and infrastructure, finance and technology.

Founded more than 150 years ago, Orrick has now a quarter of its practice outside the US. Its overseas operations are led from outposts in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Russia, China and Japan, as well as an affiliated office in Côte d’lvoire, which the firm opened in 2014 in order to boost its African energy practice.