Pair of Texas lawyers helped seal $2.2 billion deal to purchase Rockets
Out-of-state attorneys at DLA Piper and White & Case worked on the largest deal in NBA franchise history, Houston billionaire Tilman Fertitta’s agreed-to purchase of the Houston Rockets from Leslie Alexander for $2.2 billion.
But two Texas lawyers — Steven Scheinthal and Rafael Stone — were the real legal minds behind the deal, Texas Lawbook reports.
Scheinthal is the general counsel for Fertitta’s restaurant, entertainment and hotel company Landry’s. Stone is the longtime general counsel for the Rockets and its home court, the Toyota Center. Together, they negotiated the deal while the New York firms handled the documentation at their direction, Scheinthal said in an email to Texas Lawbook.
“That is how we kept it quiet and it was done fast,” he said.
Scheinthal confirmed that there were challenges getting the deal done given Hurricane Harvey, which flooded thousands of homes in the Houston area, but he wouldn’t elaborate.
“I do not wish to provide any further details or comments,” he said. “We are just the lawyers and not the principals.”
Fertitta employee
Fertitta was rumored to be bidding on the team shortly after the 73-year-old Alexander announced he was selling it in July to focus on his philanthropic efforts. Fertitta offered to buy the team in 1993 for $81 million but was outbid by Alexander, who offered $85 million. He has been a limited partner and served as an advisory director in the mid-1990s.
The restaurateur paid a high price for his new prize. In February, Forbes valued the team at $1.65 billion, so Fertitta paid about a 33 percent premium.
Fertitta’s purchase still needs to clear the NBA’s board of governors.
Scheinthal began doing work for Fertitta while practicing at Stumpf & Falgout, the law firm of Fertitta’s cousin, Tilman “Skip” Falgout. He went in-house in 1992 and became general counsel and a director of Fertitta’s company the following year.
During that time he has dealt with well-publicized fights with stockholders, bondholders, employees, customers and even animal rights activists (over the white tigers Fertitta has caged at his aquarium entertainment complex in downtown Houston).
Fertitta took Landry’s private in 2010 in a deal worth $1.4 billion.
Rockets general counsel
Rafael Stone, meanwhile, has been general counsel for the Rockets and the Toyota Center for more than 10 years. The Seattle native played basketball for Williams College and graduated from Stanford Law School in 1997. He previously practiced in the mergers and acquisitions and capital markets group at the nowdefunct Dewey Ballantine.
Landry’s owns 500 high-end and casual dining establishments around the world as well as the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and Laughlin, Nev., Atlantic City, N.J., Biloxi, Miss., and Lake Charles, La.