Texas Lawyer Q&A with Energy Attorney of the Year Finalist: Bryan Loocke

Bryan Loocke, partner with Vinson & Elkins, is among the finalists for Texas Lawyer’s 2025 Energy Attorney of the Year. Read a Q&A with him below.

How have recent shifts in energy policy, both at the state and federal level, affected your practice, and how do you help clients adapt to these changes?

Speed has been a major component of dealmaking in 2025. At Vinson & Elkins, we have been extremely focused on helping clients navigate the market and completing transactions by having an amazing group of lawyers with deep subject matter experience, who are fully up to speed on all of the regulatory changes impacting the energy industry and how such changes impact each individual deal. My ultimate job is to apply the firm’s broad capabilities with my market experience, judgment, and focus so that we help our clients focus on the most important valuation and deal certainty issues, rather than get bogged down in ancillary matters that could cause delays, which often result in dead or re-priced deals.

To read the full interview, click here.

The Managing Partner of Vinson & Elkins’ Houston office, Loocke was named a finalist for Energy Attorney of the Year for his work on major upstream and midstream oil and gas transactions. His work included representing Grayson Mill Holdings in its $5 billion sale of Williston Basin assets to Devon Energy, advising EnCap Investments and Ameredev in a $1.905 billion Delaware Basin deal with Matador Resources, and representing EnCap and XCL Resources in the $2.55 billion sale of Uinta Basin assets to SM Energy and Northern Oil and Gas.