Biography
Monica Pace Messick is a Dallas corporate and finance lawyer and focuses her practice on energy lending transactions, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), business entity formation and governance, contract negotiations and general corporate work. In her finance practice, she advises regional and national banks, private equity companies and oil and gas companies on oil and gas-secured credit facilities, of both the single-lender and agented variety. As part of this practice, Monica has extensive experience in drafting and negotiating credit agreements, intercreditor agreements (both in the first lien/second lien lender context and to facilitate sharing of pari passu liens with outside hedge providers), subordination agreements, guaranties, mortgages, and other security documents, and in advising clients with respect to perfection, hedging and usury matters. She has also guided lenders through workouts and the complex considerations faced with distressed loans.
Monica’s corporate practice includes a broad variety of transactions, extending from mergers, acquisitions and private placements to entity formation, governance issues and general contracting needs. This diversity of experience enables her to issue-spot and guide clients through the myriad issues faced by small and mid-sized companies in their formation and growth stages, financing needs, and day-to-day operations.
Education
B.B.A., summa cum laude, Stetson University
J.D., Vanderbilt Law School
- Articles Editor, Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment Law and Practice
Bar Admissions
Texas, 2005
Energy Lending
- Orchestrated and managed a $400 million agented oil and gas-secured credit facility involving second lien and hedge intercreditor agreements
- Managed workout of a $20 million oil and gas-secured credit facility resulting in client’s receipt of repayment in full of all principal, interest, fees and expenses
- Coordinated $65 million senior secured debt financing for a private investment fund in conjunction with joint development arrangements with an E&P operator
- Orchestrated and managed dozens of secured and unsecured credit facilities involving E&P borrowers ranging in value from $250,000 to over $400 million
- Advise participant banks on syndicated loan terms
- Advise private equity clients on investment in publicly traded debt instruments
Corporate
- Serve as “outside general counsel” to small and mid-sized companies to service their broad variety of day-to-day needs
- Represented Canadian manufacturer in its acquisition of a Texas-based facility
- Represented film production company in financing a motion picture
- Represented seller of a Texas-based manufacturing and distribution
- Formed and drafted and negotiated governing documents for over 50 new entities, including corporations, partnerships, and LLCs
- “Energy Transition” panel speaker, Women’s Energy Network – North Texas 11th Annual Leadership Conference, Dallas, TX, October 21, 2021
- “Mentor and Sponsorship: Creating Growth in Your Organization,” panel speaker, The Women in Law & Leadership Summit, Dallas, October 16, 2019
- “Ring in the New Year with WEN,” Women’s Energy Network Dallas luncheon, January 22, 2019
- “Recent Trends and Issues in Energy Lending,” 2017 Whitley Penn Fort Worth Energy Conference, September 28, 2017
- “Thrill of the Practice: Corporate Law,” panel speaker, Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, February 21, 2008
- State Bar of Texas
- Dallas Bar Association
- Women’s Energy Network Advisory Board Member and Past President
- Attorneys Serving the Community