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Robert H. George

Robert George is a partner in the firm's Houston office where he is part of the firm's Energy, Infrastructure, and Resources practice area. He focuses his US and cross-border transactional practice on: (1) development and financing of energy and infrastructure projects; (2) trading of financial products (including claims) and commodities; (3) mergers, acquisitions and divestitures; and (4) structured finance projects, prepayments and securitizations of financial and other income generating assets. Robert has substantial experience in structuring and negotiating cross-border projects and transactions in emerging markets, with particular knowledge on projects in Mexico, South America, and Central America.

Prior to joining the firm, Robert was corporate and finance partner and served as managing partner for the Houston office of an international law firm where he advised public, private and state-owned clients on a variety of complex legal issues. He started his career as outside counsel to some of the largest banks with exposure to the troubled real estate and energy sectors in the late 80's and, as a result, has extensive experience in advising parties in distressed situations, both in and out of bankruptcy. He then accepted an opportunity to move abroad to advise his clients in the energy sector on the legal issues related to several billion dollars in international and domestic assets, primarily in Brazil and other parts of South America. After returning to the U.S., he spent five years as the chief legal officer for an internal investment business managing a portfolio of commodities, derivatives, securities and other financial assets for Koch Industries, Inc., one of the largest private companies in the United States. There, among other things, he supervised the trading of commodities and financial products, the creation and operation of a $300 million privately-placed derivatives product company, including the negotiations with both S&P and Moody's to obtain the required AAA/Aaa ratings, the creation of a $1.2 billion special purpose vehicle to hold financial investments and a private placement of over $1 billion in rated debt to third parties. He subsequently took his experience gained as in-house counsel and returned to private practice where he uses that experience to provide his current clients with practical advice on legal issues impacting their domestic and international businesses.

  • Recognized in The Best Lawyers in America® for Securitization and Structured Finance Law (2023-2024)
  • Recognized by Latin Lawyer as among the best 250 for 2018 and several prior years for his international Energy practice
  • Recognized for work on one of the largest Mexican infrastructure projects in recent history, which was awarded the Project Finance Project of the Year by Latin Lawyer (2014)

Languages

Extensive experience reviewing and negotiating contracts executed in both Spanish and Portuguese.

  • American Bar Association
  • Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce
  • AIPN - Association of International Petroleum Negotiators
  • Presenter, “The Changing Face of National Oil Companies: Trends and Issues Unique to this Segment of the Energy Sector,” International Upstream Energy Transactions, UT Law CLE, Houston, January 2011
  • Moderator/Presenter, “Energy & Renewable Energy,” Latin American Trade and Investment Association's Latin American Investment Forum, London, March 2011
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