Despite seven business-focused law firms in Texas boosting their ranks significantly through new hires, new data shows that lateral partner movement slowed during the first six months of 2025 — though the decline looks steeper than it really was because the first half of 2024 was a record-setting year for partner moves.
New Texas Lawbook data shows that 138 Texas partners at corporate law firms and litigation boutiques moved their legal practices to competitor law firms during the first six months of 2025 — a 16 percent drop from the same period in 2024.
The Texas offices of three law firms — Dykema, Greenberg Traurig and Jackson Walker — led the pack by each hiring nine partners from competitors during H1 2025.
Sheppard Mullin and Holland & Knight each added seven new partners in Texas via free agency between Jan. 1 and June 30.
Lateral partner movement was 22 percent higher than the last six months of 2024, though partners are historically less likely to lateral to a new firm during the second half of a year.
Kate Cassidy, founding attorney at Lotus Legal Search, said that national and regional law firms operating in Texas “are strategically hiring partners based on practice area expertise and client synergies.”
“Partner hiring has been pretty consistent in Texas compared to other markets,” Cassidy said. “Dallas, Houston and Austin are growth market compared to nationally, fueled by a strong local economy and companies relocating to Texas due to the business-friendly environment. The new Texas incorporation regulations are helping, as well.”
Cassidy said a “self-sustaining book of business continues to be important for most partners considering a lateral move,” as well as “niche practice area experience and a match in rate structure.”
In all, 59 law firms operating in Texas were on the buyer’s side of the lateral hiring market scale, while 53 witnessed partners exit.
Among its nine partner additions, Dykema beefed up its white-collar criminal practice by hiring former Northern District of Texas U.S. Attorney Leigha Simonton and her former first assistant U.S. Attorney, Scott Hogan.
The Texas offices of Greenberg Traurig also landed a few big fish this year in former Hines Real Estate chief legal officer Richard Heaton, antitrust partner Bill Katz, cross-border transactions expert Mohammad “Mo” Alturk and veteran dealmaker Gemma Descoteaux.
And two prominent Texas lawyers — former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht and former Bracewell partner Jeff Oldham — joined Jackson Walker’s appellate law practice.
Four law firms in Texas — White & Case, Chamberlain Hrdlicka, Greenberg Traurig and Kane Russell Coleman Logan — each lost five or more partners to the lateral marketplace during the first half of this year.
The new Lawbook lateral partner tracker for the first six months of the year shows that:
- More than twice as many male partners made lateral moves (94 to 44);
- Firms in Houston barely edged Dallas in lateral partner hiring (59 to 57); and
- Corporate transactional practices edged litigation in lateral partner hiring (66 to 54).
Cassidy, who is working with an American Lawyer top 20 firm seeking to open a DFW office, said firms are offering two-year guaranteed contracts, six-figure signing bonuses to lure partners away from competitors.
“I’ve also seen firms relax or remove billing hour requirements for the first year at least, as there is a 60 to 120 day ramp up period for partners due to a move,” she said.
Other prominent moves in the first six months of the year included:
— Skadden luring Steve Gill away from Vinson & Elkins, as well as veteran dealmakers Mingda Zhao and Emery Choi from White & Case.
— Leanne Oliver moving to private practice at Phillips Murrah as a director of its Dallas office after retiring with nearly three decades in-house at PepsiCo.
— Sheppard Mullin luring Gene Besen to its government practice from Bradley.
— Simpson Thacher adding Fern Han, who spent more than 14 years at White & Case advising on large-scale infrastructure finance.
— Fisher Phillips hiring labor and employment partner Emily Harbison away from Reed Smith to be the firm’s regional managing partner in Houston.
— Bradley hiring Sarah Wirskye in its government enforcement and investigations group, as well as bringing Jacque Kruppa back into private practice from her role as chief legal officer of Texas Regional Bank.
— Paul Hastings hiring trial lawyer Craig Stanfield away from King & Spalding.
— Bracewell adding Alamdar Hamdani, former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas.
— Damien Diggs departing as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas to join Winston & Strawn.
— Former chairman and commissioner of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Jon Niermann landing at Vinson & Elkins.
— Energy dealmakers Jon Platt and Larry Hall moving to Willkie from Baker Botts.