Ex-Dewey Group Leaves Bracewell for Morgan Lewis

John Klauberg (from left), Charles Vandenburgh and Michael Espinoza of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius (Courtesy photos)

A trio of Bracewell partners who work on utility-industry deals, including the co-chair of the firm's power projects practice, have moved to Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, the new firm announced this week.

John Klauberg and Michael Espinoza join Morgan Lewis in New York, and Charles Vanderburgh joined the firm’s office in Hartford, Connecticut, after seven years at Bracewell, where they worked with energy clients on mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and other transactions. All three attorneys came to Bracewell from Dewey & LeBoeuf in May 2012, as the New York firm was collapsing.

Klauberg, who led the power projects practice group along with Jessica Adkins in Houston, and Vandenburgh are longtime practitioners in the energy deals space who go back decades at Dewey and a predecessor firm, LeBoeuf Lamb, according to their LinkedIn profiles. Espinoza made partner at Bracewell in early 2016 and has worked with Klauberg and Vandenburgh on several deals, according to announcements on their former firm’s website.

All come to Morgan Lewis as partners. The firm said “several” associates are anticipated to join the move in New York.

The trio were among the lawyers who advised Great Plains Energy in its $12 billion acquisition of Westar Energy in 2016 and the 2014 sale by Duke Energy of its Midwestern merchant power generation business to Dynergy for $2.8 billion.

The same year, the three attorneys advised Integrys Energy Group on the sale of a Michigan utility to a U.K. investment fund for $298 million. Klauberg also helped Integrys sell 50 solar power projects to TerraForm Power, according to Bracewell’s website.

Additionally, Klauberg has represented Puget Sound Energy in several deals to acquire fossil fuel and wind generation sites, and he has worked on deals for Direct Energy Services and Basalt Infrastructure Partners, the Bracewell website says.

The moves come on the heels of departures by other Bracewell partners for Mayer Brown. Fritz Lark, an M&A partner and another Dewey alum, moved on in February; Elena Rubinov, a securities and corporate partner, joined Mayer Brown in March. The pace of departures is still nowhere near the losses of laterals that Bracewell saw around 2015 and 2016, when some 60 partners left, according to the ALM Legal Compass.