Before 2024 was even 36 hours old, Willkie Farr announced on Jan. 2, 2024, that private equity dealmaker Sarah McLean was moving her law practice from Shearman & Sterling to their firm. By Jan. 4, seven more Texas law partners had switched firms. Eleven months later, 2024 ended with six corporate and real estate partners from Locke Lord jumping to BakerHostetler.
The number of Texas law partners who moved their practice to a new firm during 2024 hit record highs and the trend seems to be continuing in 2025. And for a growing percentage of the lateral moves, this was their second or third jump in recent years.
Texas Lawbook data shows that 276 partners at business and litigation practices jumped to a competitor last year — up 20.5 percent from 229 in 2023 and surpassing the previous all-time high of 260 in 2022.
The explanation is simple: That’s where the money is.
Legal industry insiders say that the elite national law firms — such as Gibson Dunn, Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Simpson Thacher and Skadden Arps — are offering annual compensation packages ranging from $5 million for mid-level experienced partners in Texas to as much as $13 million for seasoned partners with large books of business.
When those elite law firms steal talent from other top competitor firms, the losing firms go on their own hunt for new talent to fill those openings with strong lateral hirings of their own.
Kate Cassidy, the founding attorney of Lotus Legal Search, said “2024 was another great year” for the top corporate law firms operating in Texas.
“We continue to get five to 10 new office openings per year in Austin, Dallas and Houston, which can over spur some movement,” said Cassidy. “I’m currently working with two additional AmLaw firms seeking to open in Dallas. A full book of portable business continues to be a priority, especially for litigation partner hiring.”
Houston outpaced DFW and litigation practices actually inched out corporate transactional practices in their lateral hiring in 2024, according to Texas Lawbook data.
Three law firms — Nelson Mullins, Paul Hastings and Jackson Walker — added 10 or more partners in 2024. BakerHostetler and Hicks Thomas each brought on nine new partners from other firms. Twenty-two firms hired five or more lateral partners.
Three law firms — Vinson & Elkins, Hunton Andrews Kurth and Kirkland & Ellis — lost 10 or more partners to competitors in 2024. In all, 16 law firms operating in Texas lost five or more Texas partners to the lateral marketplace last year.
Paul Hastings added 16 new lateral partners last year, including former Akin Gump cybersecurity partner Michelle Reed and eight corporate finance partners from Vinson & Elkins.
Other big laterals in 2024 included:
- O’Melveny & Myers lured Houston trial partner Denise Scofield away from Winston, but lost energy projects partner Monica Hwang to White & Case;
- Haynes Boone nabbed prominent litigation partner Victor Vital from Barnes & Thornburg;
- King & Spalding opened its Dallas office by snagging nationally known antitrust lawyer Veronica Moyé from Gibson Dunn;
- Jacqui Bogucki took her infrastructure from Simpson Thacher to Weil Gotshal;
- Gibson Dunn stole litigator Liz Ryan from Weil;
- Rodney Moore jumped from Winston to Jones Day;
- Kirkland hired M&A partner Albert Jou from O’Melveny;
- Jonathan Katz moved his project finance practice from King & Spalding to Latham & Watkins;
- Holt Foster leaped from Sidley to Willkie; and
- Vinson & Elkins convinced tax transactions partner Jenny Speck to leave Bracewell.
For many of these lawyers, it was their second or third lateral move.
Scofield had previously been at Morgan Lewis. Moyé was previously a partner at V&E. Hwang had been at King & Spalding. Ryan had practiced at Lynn Pinker. Bogucki was a boomerang back to Weil. Foster was previously at Thompson & Knight. Jou had practiced at Willkie. Moore had been a partner at V&E and Weil. And Vital formerly called Greenberg Traurig home.
Cassidy said firms are offering two and three-year compensation guarantees with management titles being an added attraction.
“We will see smaller regional firms continue to struggle to match the growth of the AmLaw firms,” she said. “It’s tough to compete for associate talent, especially with the high salary scales at the big firms. And the inability to keep top associate talent is also a reason why regional firm partners are joining AmLaw firms.”
Kent Zimmermann of the Zeughauser Group said most major U.S. markets experienced record or near-record levels of lateral activity in 2024.
“Interestingly, the top 10 firms ranked by [profits per equity partner], New York and London are generally their highest growth priorities, followed by other U.S. geographies including Washington, D.C., California and Texas,” Zimmermann said. “Firms more focused on energy and infrastructure are more likely to prioritize Texas higher, even though Texas is a lot more than energy and infrastructure.”
“Many highly profitable firms are increasingly prioritizing the growth of existing client relationships by consulting clients about who they need to hire to grow the relationship in given areas,” he said. “When firms follow this approach, they are less interested in the lateral’s book of business and more interested in investing and laterals and teams that the client says is absolute top tier and who the client want to use for sophisticated matters.”
“The more that needle-moving partners in high-rate practices who are in less profitable firms prioritize maximizing their comp over other considerations, the harder it will be for the less profitable firms to fend off much larger and more profitable firms from attracting those people,” Zimmerman said.