As we reported last week, Texas capital-markets lawyers seperated themselves in two distinct ways in the first half of 2026: by staying busiest across a broad pipeline of offerings and by landing roles on the handful of transactions large enough to dominate the value leaderboards.
The Texas Lawbook’s exclusive Corporate Deal Tracker CapM leaderboards for the first half of the year highlight both. The deal-count table rewards repeat execution, while the deal-value table captures those leading the market’s biggest offerings. Neither should be read as a marketwide total, of course, as a transaction can be credited to multiple lawyers, so individual counts and values are not additive.
By volume, Latham & Watkins has the strongest showing at the very top of the individual rankings. Houston partner Ryan Maierson leads all listed lawyers with 21 credited CapM deals, followed by Austin partner David Miller with 20. Samuel Rettew, also in Austin, ranks third with 12.
The gap between those three and the rest of the field is notable. The next-highest lawyers, Simpson Thacher’s Brian Rosenzweig and Vinson & Elkins’ Jackson O’Maley, have 11 credited CapM transactions apiece, followed by V&E’s David Stone with 10.
The value rankings tell a more concentrated story. Gibson Dunn’s Hillary Holmes leads with $105.7 billion in credited issue value across nine deals, while fellow Houston partner Harrison Tucker is second with $101.5 billion across three and Houston colleague Atma Kabad with $76.5 billion, all boosted because they led issuer-side work on SpaceX’s $75 billion IPO.
Behind them, Kirkland’s Julian Seiguer and Ieuan List rank near the top, with $15.2 billion and $14.7 billion in credited value, respectively. Winston Taylor’s Justin Hoffman combines eight credited transactions with $13.9 billion in value, while Miller and Maierson show the ability to pair very high deal counts with $12.6 billion and $11.6 billion in credited value. The Texas-related leaderboard reinforces the distinction, again thanks to SpaceX. Hunton’s Daryl Robertson is credited with one $75 billion transaction (the firm played a specialized Texas-law and governance advisory role in the IPO).
Other key takeaways:
- V&E has three lawyers in the Top 25 by deal count: Jackson O’Maley is tied for fourth with 11 credited deals, David Stone is sixth with 10 and Thomas Zentner is tied for 14th with six. O’Maley and Stone each also rank in the Top 25 by value, $5.8 billion and $6.8 billion, respectively, so the firm’s volume leaders are handling meaningful transaction sizes, too. Sarah Morgan adds another Top 25 value placement at $3 billion.
- Baker Botts places two lawyers in the Top 25 by count and by value: Clint Rancher has seven credited deals and $8.5 billion, while Eileen Boyce has six deals and $4.4 billion.
- Simpson Thacher’s Brian Rosenzweig ranks fourth by count with 11 deals and is credited with $7.205 billion; Matt Hart adds nine deals and $4.467 billion.
- Winston Taylor’s Hoffman is that firm’s clear standout, with eight credited deals and $13.9 billion, one of the strongest combinations of Top 10 volume and Top 5 value in the table. Michael Blankenship adds nine deals, giving Winston two top-tier CapM dealmakers.
- Kirkland & Ellis shows strength in high-value work across several lawyers: Seiguer is credited with $15.2 billion, List with $14.7 billion and Matt Pacey with $10.3 billion. Pacey also has eight deals, giving Kirkland a lawyer who ranks strongly on both metrics.
- Skadden’s Michael Hamilton’s five credited deals and $7.8 billion place him firmly in both Top 25s.
- Clifford Chance’s Om Pandya has five credited matters totaling $4.2 billion, placing him in both Top 25s. Trevor Lavelle adds $3.7 billion across two deals.
- Bracewell’s Troy Harder and his four deals and $3.3 billion place him in the Top 25 by value, with Will Anderson contributing three deals and $950 million.
- Haynes Boone’s Texas-led showing reflects a bench that extends beyond a single partner and extends across more than one office: Frank Wu, Jennifer Wisinski and Stephen Grant each appear on multiple credited matters, with Wu and Wisinski associated with $1.4 billion and $1.3 billion in value, respectively.
