Overview
Nicholas (Nick) Peters is a business lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP whose practice centers on equity and debt financings, mergers and acquisitions, joint venture agreements and other complex business transactions. Nick’s clients include private equity sponsors, investment funds, operating companies, startup ventures, executives, investors and upstream and midstream oil and gas companies. While Nick is a generalist who prides himself on serving his clients as “outside general counsel,” he focuses his efforts on energy-related matters, including upstream and midstream oil and gas, acquisitions and divestitures, joint ventures and operating contracts. Nick is based in the firm’s Dallas office where he is a member of the firm’s Transactions Practice and Energy Industry Team.
Prior to Foley, Nick served as in house counsel for two upstream oil and gas companies. Most recently, Nick was general counsel and director of land and business development functions for a private equity-backed upstream oil and gas company managing over $500 million of equity capital deployed. He also managed the company’s acquisition and divestiture activities spanning over 30,000 acres located in multiple counties in the states of New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas and was responsible for managing land and business development teams in all matters associated with the acquisition, management, and disposition of company assets. Prior to his private equity experience, Nick served as in house counsel and land manager for a large, Dallas-based upstream oil and gas company focusing on acquiring, operating and divesting conventional oil and gas properties throughout numerous states in the continental United States.
Professional Affiliations and Community Engagement
- Member, Highland Park Presbyterian Church
- Board of Directors, Head Start of Greater Dallas
- Board of Directors, Highland Park Education Foundation
- Member, Salesmanship Club of Dallas
- Member, University of Texas at Dallas Jindal School of Energy Management (Fall 2018 – Present)
- Member of the Board of Directors; Secretary, Head Start of Greater Dallas, Inc. (Spring 2016 – Present)
- Member of the Board of Directors, Dallas Association of Petroleum Landmen (Spring 2012 – Spring 2017)
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Business Law Section of the State Bar of Texas (Spring 2010 – 2014)
- Chairman of the Contracts Law Committee (2011 – 2013)
- Secretary and Treasurer of the Business Law Section of the State Bar of Texas
- Founding Member, Young Professionals in Private Equity (Spring 2012 – Spring 2019)
- The Think Ahead Group at the UTD Center for BrainHealth (Spring 2009 – Fall 2015)
- Founding Member; President of the Advisory Board (2010 – 2011)
- Founding Member, Young Texans Against Cancer (Spring 2008 – Spring 2010)
Representative Matters
- Negotiated $375 million joint venture agreement geared toward deploying capital in data center infrastructure development.
- Represented buyer in $40 million bankruptcy acquisition of oil and gas equity and assets.
- Represented seller in $80 million sale of electric refurbishment business to private equity buyer.
- Represented seller in connection with the sale of its solar energy development company.
- Represented operating company in connection with $100 million renewable gas project financing.
- Represented private equity backed operating company in its investment in an ESG-focused investment fund.
- Represented tech startup company in Series A fundraising efforts.
- Represented buyer in connection with startup of oil and gas company and subsequent acquisition of South Texas producing wellbores.
- Managed a private equity company’s $76 million sale of non-operated Eagle Ford assets to a public company buyer.
- Managed a private equity company’s ~$70 million sale of conventional oil and gas properties in the SCOOP play to a private equity-backed buyer.
- Negotiated the trade of over 1,000 acres in the SCOOP and STACK plays in Oklahoma between private equity-backed parties.
- Managed a $100 million acquisition program in the Delaware Basin for a private equity-backed company.
- Negotiated the $14 million acquisition of non-operated Eagle Ford wells for a private equity buyer.
- Assisted in negotiation of over $2.7 billion in upstream oil and gas assets acquired by a privately held company and took primary role in drafting purchase agreements for same and managed buy-side title and environmental diligence teams.
- Lead negotiator in sale of over $1.7 billion in operated oil and gas assets in the Rockies region.
- Managed acquisition diligence in connection with a privately held company’s acquisition of over $1 billion of upstream oil and gas assets in the mid-continent region.
- Lead negotiator of a farmout agreement covering approximately 20,000 net mineral acres in the State of Oklahoma.
- Managed several royalty disputes and lawsuits in which settlements were obtained awarding the client over $11 million in royalties due and owing to the company.
- Assisted in management of class action royalty lawsuits in the States of Kansas and Oklahoma.
- Represented private company in connection with the formation, development and subsequent sale of a $16 million wind farm project located in the United States.
- Represented private company in the $250 million sale of an oil and gas pipeline construction business to a publicly traded company.
- Represented a private equity fund in formation activities and $220 million acquisition of natural gas midstream assets.
- Represented a private equity fund in $14 million sale of retail portfolio company.
- Represented a private equity fund in formation activities and $34 million energy investment transactions.
- Represented a commercial real estate company in $700 million merger with a public company.
- Represented investors in connection with their formation of an investment vehicle to fund a restaurant chain.
Education
- Southern Methodist University – Dedman School of Law, Fort Worth, Texas (J.D., cum laude, 2006)
- Article editor, International Law Review Association
- Student attorney, W.W. Caruth Child Advocacy Clinic
- Member, The Barristers
- Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA (B.A., cum laude 2002)
- Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas (Petroleum Land Management Certificate, 2012)
Publications
- Co-Author, “2007 Annual Survey of Fifth Circuit Class Action Cases,” 30 Texas Business Litigation Journal 4 (Winter 2008)
- Co-Author, “2006 Annual Survey of Fifth Circuit Class Action Cases,” 29 Texas Business Litigation Journal 10 (Winter 2007)
- Contributor, “Annual Survey of Texas Class Action Cases,” 29 Texas Business Litigation Journal 4 (Winter 2007)
- Author, “NAFTA and Environmental Regulation in Mexico,” 12 Law and Business Review of the Americas 119 (Winter 2006)
Recognition
- Recognized as a 2023 Thomson Reuters Stand-out Lawyer
Admissions
- Texas State Bar
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas