Frost Brown Todd (FBT) has expanded its Dallas team by adding five new attorneys: Members Lucas T. Elliot, John J. Tucker, and Aaron S. Turner; and Associates Austin S. Conner and Hampton D. Crow, Jr. The addition of these five attorneys signals a marked expansion in the breadth and caliber of services offered by FBT’s Dallas office, which opened in 2015 with only two members and now houses some of the most highly regarded corporate attorneys and litigators in the Lone Star State.
“We continue to draw impressive attorneys,” Dallas Member-in-Charge Dan Novakov says, “who have experience in multiple practice areas and industries and who are raising the profile of our Dallas office.”
FBT’s new members, Elliot, Tucker, and Turner, have several decades of accumulated experience between them. Over the course of their careers, they have represented clients in the most heavily regulated sectors, including the oil and gas, aviation, hi-tech, biomedical, and financial services industries; they have closed deals, negotiated settlements, and secured significant rulings for their clients.
As for Associates Conner and Crow, they might be new to FBT, but they are by no means new to the fray. Both have been recognized by industry publications for doing outstanding work in their respective practice areas, and they have established themselves as attorneys to watch in the coming years.
It is relatively rare for five high-caliber attorneys to join the same office in such quick succession, making it a move likely to catch the attention of both clients and competitors in the region. More important, their addition is a sign of continued growth in what has already been a growth market and boon for FBT’s Dallas team.
Member Lucas T. Elliot, previously a partner with the international law firm Morgan Lewis & Bockius in Houston, joins FBT’s Business Litigation Practice Group. He represents domestic and foreign organizations and individuals in a range of industries, including oil and gas, telecommunications, computer hardware/software, ecommerce, technology development, and insurance. He also has experience litigating bankruptcy, real estate, and intellectual property claims and handling commercial and complex tort disputes.
Member John J. Tucker, previously with the international law firm Greenberg Traurig in Dallas, joins FBT’s CMBS Lending and Servicing Practice Group. Tucker has nearly two decades of experience representing funds, investment banks and other institutional lenders and market participants in connection with commercial mortgage loan origination and servicing, securitization and other secondary market transactions. He also represents purchasers, sellers, and servicers with respect to workouts and restructurings, splits and syndications, REO sales and a variety of asset-backed transactions.
Member Aaron S. Turner, previously with the international law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges in Dallas, joins FBT’s Finance and Real Estate Practice Group. Turner practices in the areas of corporate finance and banking credit transactions and restructurings and workouts arising from those transactions and has extensive experience representing lenders, lender-agents, institutional purchasers, private equity sponsors, and public and private corporate borrowers in all industries—including midstream and upstream oil and gas, medical device manufacturing and technology.
Associate Austin S. Conner joins FBT as a managing associate after working first as general counsel to two independent oil and gas companies and later as a corporate attorney with the international law firm Foley Gardere, where he advised clients on M&A transactions and joint operating and master service agreements. In addition to representing oil and gas clients, Conner represents banks in a variety of financial transactions, including real estate lending, reserved-based and commercial asset-backed financing, and loan modifications involving defaulted and troubled loans.
Associate Hampton D. Crow Jr., previously with the international law firm Greenberg Traurig in Dallas, joins FBT as a senior associate representing private investors, institutional lenders, and investment banks across various complex real estate and commercial financing matters, including portfolio loan originations and securitizations; mezzanine, subordinate and asset-based financing; and revolving and term loan credit facilities. His experience encompasses virtually all asset classes: office, industrial, retail, multifamily, hospitality, franchise properties and condominium regimes.