#210: Getting Deals Done - Clay Brett

This episode's guest is Clay Brett. Clay is a partner at Baker Botts, and leads a broad transactional practice, representing private equity investors, private credit investors, portfolio companies and financial institutions in M&A, capital formation, financing and joint venture deals.

While Clay has led transactions across sectors as a generalist, Clay is regarded as one of a handful of the most respected names in the private energy investment space.

Clay is uniquely positioned to give legal advice because he has experience in both operating companies as well as doing structured finance deals.

In this episode, we start with Clay's background and discuss his motivations for leaving corporate law to join a private equity backed E&P company. After a few years of operating upstream assets, his group raised additional private capital to deploy into DrillCos and other structured finance deals.

Clay is an expert in deal structuring and drops a ton of knowledge in this episode on how to get transactions across the finish line. You don't want to miss this one!

Enjoy the show!

Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 00:01:51 - Clay's Introduction 00:02:37 - Clay's Career Journey 00:09:10 - Transition to Law 00:11:36 - Deal Making: A High-Level View 00:13:30 - Key Considerations in Deal Making 00:19:38 - Role of Rep and Warranty Insurance in Transactions 00:21:21 - Framing the Transaction 00:23:12 - Importance of Good Representation 00:24:29 - Understanding the Financial Impact 00:29:02 - Negotiation Tone and Relationship 00:30:23 - Deal Exhaustion and Loss of Trust 00:33:52 - Importance of Detailed Term Sheets 00:35:27 - Evolution of Millennial Phase 00:41:43 - The Investment Process 00:43:15 - Understanding the Drill Code Space 00:44:52 - Transitioning to Advisory and Legal Side 00:45:56 - Private Equity Space for Oil and Gas 00:53:34 - Challenges in Upstream Transactions 00:55:32 - Changes in Private Equity Funding 00:57:12 - Surviving in the Industry 00:58:03 - Opportunities in Lower Middle Market 01:00:58 - Transition and New Role 01:01:40 - Water Situation in Texas 01:03:00 - Interest in Storage and Carbon 01:03:26 - Contact Information