People

Overview

Dario Mendoza advises public and private companies, real estate investment trusts (REITs), private equity firms, portfolio companies, boards of directors, compensation committees, management teams and individual executives on a wide range of compensation and benefits matters, including applicable tax, securities law, corporate governance and disclosure implications associated with such matters.

Dario's practice involves compensation and benefits issues that arise in mergers, acquisitions, sales, joint ventures, initial public offerings, private offerings, reorganizations, restructurings, Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) and de-SPAC transactions and a wide range of other transactions, domestic and international.

Dario advises clients on designing, drafting, negotiating, implementing, and administering a broad variety of compensation and benefits arrangements, including but not limited to equity-based and cash-based incentive arrangements, employment agreements, severance agreements, change in control arrangements, retention arrangements and other deferred compensation arrangements.

Dario has been recognized by Chambers USA (2021-2025 editions), where one client notes "Dario is an extremely valuable resource for us in the executive compensation field." Dario is also recognized by The Legal 500 U.S. (2021-2024 editions) and The Best Lawyers in America© (2023-2025 editions).

Admissions & Affiliations

  • State Bar of Texas
  • Vice Chair, Dallas Bar Association, Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Section

Education

  • J.D., Stanford Law School 2010
  • B.A., Government & Psychology, The University of Texas 2006
    with high honors

Experience

  • Underwriters to Fermi Inc. in its $784 million initial public offering of common stock
  • Sitio Royalties Corp. in its $4.1 billion merger with Viper Energy
  • Chord Energy in its $11 billion combination with Enerplus Corporation
  • Brigham Minerals in its $4.8 billion business combination with Sitio Royalties
  • CENAQ Energy Corp., a SPAC, in a business combination with Bluescape Clean Fuels, a private company specializing in the supply of gasoline derived from renewable feedstocks
  • ProFrac Holding Corp. in its $288 million initial public offering of common stock
  • Blackstone Energy Partners in its majority investment in Geosyntec Consultants, a leading environmental engineering and design consulting firm
  • Oasis Petroleum Inc. in a $6 billion merger of equals with Whiting Petroleum Corporation creating Chord Energy in 2022
  • MoneyGram International, Inc. in its $1.8 billion acquisition by Madison Dearborn Partners
  • Desert Peak Minerals in an agreement to combine with Falcon Minerals Corporation in a $1.9 billion transaction

Mergers & Acquisitions

  • Goodrich Petroleum Corporation in its $480 million sale to Paloma Partners, an EnCap affiliate, in an all cash tender offer
  • Oasis Petroleum and its affiliate companies in the $1.8 billion merger of Oasis Midstream Partners LP with Crestwood Equity Partners LP
  • The parent company of EagleClaw Midstream, a Blackstone and I Squared Capital portfolio company, in a $9 billion merger with Altus Midstream to form Kinetik Holdings
  • TradeZero Holding Corp. in its $556 million business combination with Dune Acquisition Corporation, a SPAC
  • Moda Midstream, an EnCap Flatrock Midstream portfolio company, in its $3.0 billion sale to Enbridge of the Moda Ingleside Energy Center, the largest crude export terminal in the U.S.
  • WPT Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust in its $3.1 billion sale to Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust, Inc.
  • Plains All American in the formation of Plains Oryx Permian Basin LLC, a strategic joint venture with Oryx Midstream, a Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners portfolio company, combining substantially all of Oryx's assets with the majority of Plains' assets located within the Permian Basin
  • Lonestar Resources in its $370 million sale to Penn Virginia Corporation
  • Hygo Energy Transition in its $5 billion merger with New Fortress Energy
  • Plains All American Pipeline in the sale of three interconnected crude oil terminals and associated pipeline infrastructure in Los Angeles to Zenith Energy U.S.
  • Noble Energy in its $13 billion sale to Chevron
  • Jagged Peak Energy in its $2.27 billion merger with Parsley Energy
  • Roan Resources in its $1 billion sale to Citizen Energy Operating, LLC, an affiliate of Warburg Pincus
  • RSP Permian in its $9.5 billion sale to Concho Resources, creating the largest unconventional shale producer in the Permian Basin
  • CYS Investments, an agency mortgage REIT, in its merger with Two Harbors Investment Corp., a leading hybrid mortgage REIT
  • Select Energy Services, an affiliate of Crestview Partners, in its $1.3 billion merger with Rockwater Energy Solutions
  • Rockpile Energy Holdings, a portfolio company of White Deer Energy, in the $284.5 million sale of RockPile Energy Services to Keane Group
  • AltaGas in the $6.4 billion acquisition of WGL Holdings, owner of a regulated natural gas utility, a midstream franchise and non-regulated contracted power and energy marketing businesses
  • Sunoco Logistics Partners LP in its $20 billion merger with Energy Transfer Partners in a unit-for-unit transaction
  • Brigham Resources in the $2.55 billion cash and stock sale of all of its leasehold interests and related assets to Diamondback Energy 
  • C&J Energy Services in its $2.86 billion merger with Nabors' completion and production business to create a leading diversified completion and production services provider
  • Eagle Rock Energy Partners in its $614 million merger with Vanguard Natural Resources
  • Eagle Rock Energy Partners in the $1.325 billion contribution of its midstream business to Regency Energy Partners

Initial Public Offerings

  • Brigham Minerals, Inc. in its $261 million initial public offering of Class A common stock Focus Financial Partners Inc. in its $615 million initial public offering of common stock Quintana Energy Services Inc. in its $96 million initial public offering of common stock Ranger Energy Services, Inc. in its $85 million initial public offering of common stock Solaris Oilfield Infrastructure, Inc. in its $121 million initial public offering of common stock Select Energy Services, Inc. in its $122 million initial public offering of common stock
  • WildHorse Resource Development Corporation in its $447 million initial public offering of common stock
  • Global Medical REIT Inc. in its $150 million initial public offering of common stock and all of its subsequent capital markets transactions including five follow-on underwritten public offerings with an approximate transactional value of $343 million; ATM offerings; and its $77 million public offering of Series A cumulative redeemable preferred stock
  • ARC Logistics Partners LP, an MLP with crude oil and refined products terminalling assets, in its $129 million initial public offering of common units
  • Hi-Crush Partners LP in its $220 million initial public offering of common units

Private Equity

  • KKR in the $5.7 billion merger between Independence Energy and Contango to form Crescent Energy Company
  • Hartree Partners in its acquisition of a controlling interest in Sprague Resources from Axel Johnson and subsequent take-private of Sprague
  • Riverstone Holdings in the $3.75 billion acquisition by its portfolio company, Fieldwood Energy LLC, of Apache Corp.'s assets in the Outer Continental Shelf of the Gulf of Mexico
  • TPG Capital in connection with all aspects of executive compensation in the $979 million acquisition of Ashland Inc.'s global chemical distribution business
  • The Carlyle Group in a joint venture with Sunoco to own and operate a Philadelphia refinery, the oldest continuously operating refinery on the U.S. east coast

Restructuring

  • AMP Capital Investors (US) Limited in the out-of-court financial restructuring of Ocean Point
  • Terminals (fka Limetree Bay Terminals) and certain affiliates under which AMP Capital will provide up to $100 million in new capital to Ocean Point Terminals
  • Unit Corporation, a diversified, publicly-traded energy company engaged in oil and natural gas exploration and production, contract drilling, and midstream services, and its affiliates in connection with its prearranged chapter 11 cases deleveraging the company by approximately $650 million in a debt-for-equity transaction with its subordinated noteholders

Awards and Community

Recommended by Chambers USA for Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation (Dallas/Ft. Worth), 2021-2026

Recognized by Chambers USA as "Up and Coming" in Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation (Dallas/Ft. Worth), 2021 & 2022

Listed in The Legal 500 U.S. for Labor & Employment: Employee Benefits, Executive Compensation & Retirement Plans: Transactional, 2021-2024

Recommended by The Best Lawyers in America (BL Rankings, LLC) for Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law (Dallas), 2023-2026

Recognized as a "Top 50 Inclusive Leader" by the National Diversity & Leadership Conference (NDLC), 2025