Kirkland & Ellis has hired an attorney with energy industry focus from Baker Botts, but lost Jonathan Castelan to the Latham & Watkins Houston office.

Continuing expansion

Brooksany Barrowes joins Kirkland & Ellis as a corporate practice partner in its Washington office, as the firm continues to expand its energy and infrastructure finance practices. Its energy practice has grown over the past five years to some 225 lawyers in its Houston office. Partner Rohit Chaudhry said, ‘we’re planning on doubling the number of lawyers, to about 40 by the end of the year.’ She joins from Baker Botts’ global projects practice, and builds the firm’s energy regulatory practice with her experience in regulatory transactional, litigation and internal investigation matters related to the energy industry and commodities and securities markets, according to the firm. In an active energy market, Ms Barrowes says, ‘new players are taking part and finding new opportunities for returns. I will be working on a broad range of energy companies to meet their needs, including managing risk.’

Strengthening practices

Jonathan Castelan joins Latham & Watkins’s Houston office as a partner in the Corporate Department and member of the Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. His areas of focus include oil and gas gathering and processing agreements, supply and offtake agreements, transportation agreements, hydrocarbon purchase agreements and pipeline interconnect agreements. Tim Fenn, Houston office managing partner, said ‘we are delighted to welcome Jonathan, an experienced M&A practitioner with critical experience in core operational agreements, to our team,’ adding ‘his strong relationships with private equity firms and energy companies will further expand our ability to serve the oil and gas industry.’ Ryan Maierson, chair of the corporate department in Houston, noted ‘his arrival demonstrates our continued commitment to strengthening our M&A and private equity practices, both in Houston and around the world.’ The firm, which has hovered around 85 lawyers for many years, is looking to increase that to over 110 to 120 in the next year, Mr Fenn has said.