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Samara Shepherd
Samara Shepherd
Partner — Investment Funds
Partner — Investment Funds

Samara Shepherd

Samara Shepherd
Houston

Texas Tower
845 Texas Avenue
Suite 4700
Houston, Texas 77002

Samara Shepherd

Experience Highlights

  • AEA Investors LP in the formation of AEA Growth Equity Fund, an inaugural $384 million growth equity fund

  • AEA Investors LP in the formation of AEA Investors Fund VII, a $4.8 billion middle market focused private equity fund

  • AEA Investors LP in the formation of AEA Investors Fund VIII, a $5.25 billion middle market focused private equity fund

  • AEA Investors LP in the formation of AEA Investors SBF IV, a $877 million lower middle market focused private equity fund

  • AEA Investors LP in the formation of AEA Investors SBF V, a $1.3 billion lower middle market focused private equity fund

  • Basin Oil and Gas Management, LP in the formation of Basin Acquisition Fund II, a mineral and royalty interests fund

  • Beecken Petty O’Keefe and Company in the formation of BPOC Fund V, a $400 million healthcare buyout fund

  • BPGC Management in the formation of a special purpose vehicle to acquire the Clean Technologies business of DuPont de Nemours, Inc. for $510 million

  • Cibolo Energy Partners in the formation of Cibolo Energy Partners II LP, a $279 million private debt fund focused on providing growth capital to upstream and midstream energy companies

  • Eir Partners Capital, LLC in the formation of Eir Partners Investment Program II, a $496 million middle market private equity investment program focused on healthcare technology and tech-enabled services

  • Frontenac Company in the formation of Frontenac Capital XII, a $520 million middle market focused private equity fund

  • Frontenac Company in the formation of a continuation fund to fund future growth initiatives of portfolio company, Motion & Control Enterprises, a leading industrial distributor and services provider of highly engineered, full lifecycle fluid, flow, automation and air solutions

  • Greenbelt Capital Partners in the formation of a continuation fund vehicle involving an energy producer

  • HF Capital, LLC, the Tennessee-based family office of the Haslam family, on its investment of up to $725 million to launch Ara Energy Decarbonization, an initiative aimed at decarbonizing heavy industry, in partnership with Ara Partners, a global private equity and infrastructure firm dedicated to decarbonizing the industrial economy

  • InfraRed Capital Partners in the formation of InfraRed Energy Transition Fund, an open-end energy infrastructure fund

  • JP Morgan Private Capital in the formation of 270 Life Sciences Private Capital Fund I, an inaugural $500 million biotechnology venture capital fund

  • MFG Partners in the formation of MFG Partners Fund I, a $299 million inaugural private equity fund focused on closely held lower-middle market industrial companies

  • Mountain Capital Management in the formation of Mountain Capital Partners II, a $500 million middle-market energy fund

  • NGP Energy Capital Management, L.L.C. in the formation of NGP Energy Transition Fund IV, a $700 million energy transition fund

  • NGP Energy Capital Management, L.L.C. in the formation of NGP Natural Resources XII,  a $4.3 billion oil and gas fund

  • NGP Energy Capital Management, L.L.C. in the formation of NGP Natural Resources XIII,  a $2.5 billion oil and gas fund

  • NGP Energy Capital Management, L.L.C. in the formation of NGP Royalty Partners II, a $527 million U.S. oil and gas minerals and royalties fund

  • Stronghold Investment Partners in the formation of SRP Ventures 2020, LP, an energy and natural resources fund

  • The Sterling Group in the formation of Sterling Group Partners V, a $2 billion operationally focused middle market private equity firm

  • Ubiquity Management in the formation of a new joint venture with Montage, Generate Capital and others to operate and expand Ubiquity’s sustainable infrastructure business

Credentials

  • Vanderbilt Law School, J.D., 2015 (Vanderbilt Moot Court Board Notes Editor, Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law, Law and Business Certificate)
  • Florida State University, B.S., Finance, summa cum laude, 2012 (Honors College)
  • The Best Lawyers in America© (BL Rankings, LLC), “Ones to Watch,” Leveraged Buyouts and Private Equity Law, Mergers and Acquisitions Law, 2026
  • Selected to the Florida Rising Stars list, Super Lawyers (Thomson Reuters), 2024
  • The National Black Lawyers, Top 40 Under 40, 2019
  • Texas
  • Florida
  • “How You Get Paid: The Realities of Management Fees and Waterfalls,” NAIC NextGen Symposium, April 2025 (speaker)
  • “Fund Formation: Differentiation via Distribution,” Texas Alternatives Conference, March 2025 (co-panelist)
  • “Knowing What You Don’t Know: Pulling Back the Curtain on Private Equity for Women of Color,” Corporate Counsel Women of Color Conference (moderator), October 2024
  • “Demystifying Corporate Practice in Big Law: The Future is Bright for Women of Color in Private Equity, M&A, and Financial Services,” Corporate Counsel Women of Color Conference (co-panelist), September 2023