Foley Gardere hired Neal A. Bakare as of counsel in the law firm’s Houston office on the Finance Practice Group and Energy Industry Team.

Bakare’s background includes time as both an in-house attorney and a private practice attorney at an international law firm. He has represented clients across the finance and energy industries, including investment banks, private equity funds, limited partnerships, public and private companies, hedge providers, and oil and gas corporations, among others. He most recently served as senior vice president of Legal Risk Management at Macquarie Bank.

“Texas continues to see heavy activity in the energy and financial services sectors, and we have a long history of successfully managing energy projects and financings,” said Michael F. Rogers, Foley Gardere’s Houston office managing partner. “Neal’s experience as an in-house attorney, paired with his knowledge of the Houston market and beyond, will provide tremendous value to our clients locally and nationally. We are thrilled to have him on board.”

Bakare has worked on a wide variety of matters, including equity transactions, complex structured transactions, mergers and acquisitions, divestitures of assets and entities, debt financing transactions, mezzanine debt and senior secured borrowing base financing transactions, and hedging transactions. His representative experience includes providing counsel to large global investment banks on mezzanine financings of oil and gas corporations in the U.S., Canada, France and Colombia.