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Wendy Trahan Salinas
Wendy Trahan Salinas
Partner — Tax
E: wsalinas@velaw.com T: +1.214.220.7801
VCard BIO PDF
Partner — Tax

Wendy Trahan Salinas

Wendy Trahan Salinas
Dallas
T: +1.214.220.7801
F: +1.214.999.7801

Trammell Crow Center
2001 Ross Avenue
Suite 3900
Dallas, Texas 75201

E: wsalinas@velaw.com
VCard BIO PDF
start quote symbolI enjoy the intellectual challenge of helping my clients structure complex financing transactions in the most tax-efficient manner.end quote symbol
Wendy Trahan Salinas

Wendy Trahan Salinas is an experienced and versatile tax attorney who focuses on taxable finance and other complex business transactions. In her taxable finance practice, Wendy advises borrowers and lenders on the tax implications of domestic and cross-border financing transactions. She has extensive experience in representing both public and privately held companies on transactions including bank credit facilities, mezzanine financings, derivatives, and project financings. She advises private equity funds in connection with debt and equity investments and other private equity transactions. She also advises public companies and lenders on bankruptcy restructuring transactions.

Wendy is head of the Partnership Admissions Committee and is also a member of the firm’s Management Committee. Her work has earned her recognition by Chambers USA 2023.

Experience Highlights

  • Unit Corporation, a diversified, publicly-traded energy company engaged in oil and natural gas exploration and production, contract drilling, and midstream services, and its affiliates in connection with its prearranged chapter 11 bankruptcy cases involving the exchange of debt for debt, conversion of debt to equity, and preservation of net operating losses

  • A national bank (in its role as the agent for a $550 million secured lending facility to an upstream producer) in connection with the producer’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring and emergence in an Up-C structure

  • Bellatrix Exploration Ltd., a Canadian entity, as lead U.S. counsel in the recapitalization transaction involving the exchange of debt into debt and equity

  • Cloud Peak, a coal mine operator, in bankruptcy restructuring matters and the adoption of a NOL poison pill prior to the bankruptcy 

  • EIG Global Energy Partners in its $375 million acquisition of volumetric production payments consisting of limited term overriding royalty interests in certain offshore mineral properties from Cox Oil Offshore and related entities 

  • Talos Energy, a portfolio company of Apollo Global Management and Riverstone Holdings, in its $2.5 billion combination with Stone Energy, creating an offshore-focused E&P company

  • Ad hoc group of lenders holding approximately $175 million in senior secured term debt in the prepackaged chapter 11 bankruptcy cases of Pioneer Energy Services Inc. involving a convertible note with a bond hedge and a capital call

  • Columbia Pipeline Group, Inc. in its $2.75 billion offering of senior notes        

  • Energy XXI Gulf Coast, Inc. in its $1.5 billion offering of senior secured notes

  • Underwriters to Halcon Resources Corporation in its $700 million offering of senior notes

  • Underwriters to Baytex Energy Corp. in its $1.2 billion offering of senior notes

  • Targa Resources Partners and Targa Resources Corp. in the $7.7 billion acquisition of Atlas Pipeline Partners and Atlas Energy

  • Cameron International Corporation in a $750 million unsecured revolving credit facility serving as a backstop for the Borrower’s commercial paper program 

  • EIG Global Energy Partners in a mezzanine loan and equity co-investment in FourPoint Energy, an upstream oil and gas company

  • Highbridge Principal Strategies in connection with numerous mezzanine loans, secured term loans, and other structured investments to domestic and Canadian oil and gas producers

  • Barings LLC in a mezzanine loan to Greenleaf Power, an owner and developer of biomass power projects

  • An international private equity fund in connection with a $1.2 billion structured repurchase agreement transaction designed to finance the acquisition of a dynamic portfolio of loans

  • An international private equity fund in the formation of a loan origination venture with a bank holding company

  • St. Luke’s Episcopal Health System in its $1 billion transfer to the Catholic Health Initiatives

  • Private equity funds and related companies regarding FATCA compliance 

Credentials

  • University of Virginia, J.D., 2001 (Virginia Tax Review)
  • Baylor University, B.B.A., Accounting summa cum laude, 1998 (Beta Alpha Psi; Alpha Kappa Psi)
  • Chambers USA, Tax (Texas), 2021–2025
  • Selected to the Texas Rising Stars list, Super Lawyers (Thomson Reuters), 2008
  • Legal 500 U.S., Tax: U.S. Taxes: Non-Contentious, 2019–2021
  • The Best Lawyers in America© (BL Rankings, LLC), Tax Law (Dallas), 2021–2025
  • Selected to the 500 Leading Dealmakers in America, Lawdragon, 2022 and 2024
  • Texas
  • “Debt Restructuring in a Turbulent Economy,” Tax Executives Institute – Houston Chapter Tax School, Houston, Texas, February 24, 2017

News & Insights

Deals & Cases
Vinson & Elkins Advises Tidewater Inc. on Debut 9.125% Senior Notes Offering
July 8, 2025
Deals & Cases
Vinson & Elkins Advises Golar LNG Limited on $575 Million Convertible Senior Notes Offering
July 1, 2025
Deals & Cases
Crescent Energy Announces Pricing of Upsized $600 Million Private Placement of 8.375% Senior Notes Due 2034
June 26, 2025
Deals & Cases
Global Partners LP Announces Pricing of Upsized Private Offering of Senior Notes
June 25, 2025