William S. Lamb

Senior Counsel

[email protected]

Houston

P: +1.713.229.1382
F: +1.713.229.7882
Bill Lamb Photo

Mr. Lamb has been advising the senior management and boards of directors of public and private companies on mergers, acquisitions and other strategic transactions for over 30 years. A significant number of Mr. Lamb's clients are in the power and utility industry. In more than three decades of advising utility companies, Mr. Lamb has had a leading role in many of the largest, most complicated, and precedent-setting transactions. These have often involved newly developed structures, regulatory approaches and deal terms. Mr. Lamb has represented bidders and targets in both negotiated and unsolicited mergers and acquisitions, including several high-profile contested transactions in the utility industry; he has assisted clients in developing and implementing responses to activist shareholders, shareholder rights plans and other takeover defenses; he also has acted as counsel to issuers and underwriters in major financings. He regularly represents financial advisors in connection with fairness opinions and other transactional matters. He also has extensive experience advising on the legal and tactical issues that arise in connection with auctions and other sell-side processes for both public and private companies. He has been involved in numerous cross-border transactions and has written extensively on energy and securities law matters.

Mr. Lamb is regularly named among leading lawyers by Chambers Global (2012-2017) and Chambers USA (2012-2017), and similar publications. Before becoming a lawyer, he was a certified public accountant with a major accounting firm.

Related Experience

Mergers and Acquisitions

  • Counsel to Vectren Corporation in its $8.1 billion merger with CenterPoint Energy, Inc.
  • Counsel to a global independent power producer in the sale of 973MW of peaking generation plants to Rockland Capital
  • Counsel to Southern Company Gas in its $1.7 billion sale of Elizabethtown Gas to South Jersey Industries, Inc.
  • Counsel to Westar Energy, Inc. in its $12.2 billion combination with Great Plains Energy Incorporated (initially announced as an acquisition; restructured as a merger of equals)
  • Counsel to Verde Energy in its sale to Spark Energy, Inc.
  • Counsel to a global independent power producer in the sale of DPL Energy Resources to IGS Energy
  • Counsel to a global independent power producer in the sale of its retail electric subsidiary, MC Squared Energy Services, LLC to Wolverine Trading, LLC
  • Counsel to Vectren Corporation in the $296 million sale of its coal mining operations to Sunrise Coal Company
  • Counsel to a global independent power producer in the divestiture of its 50% interest in Silver Ridge Power, a solar generation company with operations in the United States, Europe and India
  • Counsel to UNS Energy in its $4.3 billion merger with Fortis Inc.
  • ProLiance Energy, in the restructuring and sale of its natural gas marketing business to an affiliate of Energy Transfer Partners, L.P.
  • Counsel to a global independent power producer in the sale of two gas-fired generating plants in Pennsylvania and New Jersey
  • Counsel to Public Service Enterprise Group in the sale of two 1000 megawatt gas-fired combined cycle generating plants for a total of $687 million
  • Counsel to a major Mexican financial services company in a bid for a Mexican asset management company
  • Counsel to AGL Resources Inc. in its $3.1 billion acquisition of Nicor Inc.
  • Advised a major Canadian property and casualty insurance company in the acquisition of a U.S. property and casualty insurer
  • Advised RWE AG in the development of a 750,000t per annum wood pellet facility in Georgia (€120 million aggregate investment)
  • Advised a state-owned oil company in its bid to acquire a publicly traded global fuel supply company
  • Advised a state-owned oil company in its bid to acquire a 235,000 bbl/d oil refinery
  • Counsel to Puget Energy in its $7.4 billion acquisition by a consortium of long-term infrastructure investors
  • Counsel to Energy East Corporation in its $8.1 billion merger with Iberdrola S.A.
  • Counsel to Public Service Enterprise Group in the $1.2 billion sale of its Chilean subsidiaries, the SAESA Group
  • Counsel on regulatory matters to MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company in its terminated acquisition of Constellation Energy Group
  • Counsel to RWE AG in its $500 million acquisition of a 50 percent interest in the LNG business of Excelerate
  • Counsel to Peoples Energy in its $1.5 billion merger with WPS Resources
  • Special regulatory counsel to MidAmerican Energy Holdings in its $9.1 billion acquisition of PacifiCorp from Scottish Power plc
  • Counsel to AGL Resources Inc. in its $690 million acquisition of NUI Corporation
  • Counsel to a group of private investment funds in the acquisition of an interest in Michigan Electric Transmission Company
  • Counsel to the Constellation Energy Group in Connection with the restructuring of its joint venture with Goldman Sachs & Co. and the separation of its generation from its retail operations
  • Counsel to Potomac Electric Power Company in its $2.2 billion acquisition of Conectiv
  • Counsel to PacifiCorp in its $14.6 billion merger with Scottish Power Limited

Counsel to Financial Advisors

  • Counsel to Morgan Stanley & Co. as financial advisor to UIL Holdings in its $4.8 billion combination with Iberdrola USA
  • Counsel to Lazard Frères as financial advisor to the Conflicts Committee of TerraForm Power, Inc. in the $2.3 billion acquisition of Vivint Solar, Inc. by TerraForm and SunEdison Inc.
  • Counsel to Lazard Frères as financial advisor to the Conflicts Committee of TerraForm Power, Inc. in the $2.4 billion acquisition of First Wind Holdings by TerraForm and SunEdison Inc.
  • Counsel to a major global financial institution as financial advisor to Wisconsin Energy in its $9.1 billion acquisition of Integrys Energy
  • Counsel to a major global financial institution as financial advisor in Exelon in its $6.7 billion acquisition of Pepco Holdings
  • Counsel to J.P. Morgan Securities as financial advisor to Duke Energy Corporation in its $26.6 billion merger with Progress Energy, Inc.
  • Counsel to Lehman Brothers Inc. as financial advisor to Exelon Corporation in its $13 billion proposed merger with Public Service Enterprise Group

Awards & Community

Recommended in The Legal 500 U.S., 2013, 2017, 2018, 2019 & 2020

Recognized in Chambers Global, 2012-2023

Recognized in Chambers USA, 2012-2023

Listed in The Best Lawyers in America (Woodward White, Inc.), 2006-2019

Recognized as a New York Super Lawyer (Thomson Reuters), 2006-2016

News

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