It’s Transaction Tuesday and The Texas Lawbook is kicking off 1H 2026 rankings with a look at billion-plus M&A through our Corporate Deal Tracker rankings, highlighting the firms that have dominated the first six months of the year and a handful of firms that have clearly seized the early lead.
Through June 30, the ampersands continue to impress, with Kirkland & Ellis and Latham & Watkins racking up their usual eye‑popping totals, but a deeper look at the data shows other firms elbowing for position in the billion‑plus arena.
The raw numbers only tell part of the story. A handful of marquee transactions illustrate just how central Texas lawyers have become to megadeal M&A. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Dallas‑ and Houston‑based teams advised on Elon Musk’s tie-up of SpaceX and xAI and on its separate $60 billion all‑stock acquisition of AI platform Cursor.
A few housekeeping notes: The Lawbook prioritizes Texas-led transactions since the law firms representing the buyers, sellers and targets almost always earn more money because they have more lawyers from different practice groups, including antitrust, employment, executive compensation, securities and tax, working on the deals. Transactions led for principals by Texas lawyers are the gold standard for measuring activity by the state’s dealmakers.
To get a broader picture of activity, the CDT also measures Texas-related transactions, which count lawyers representing investment banks, conflicts committees, or other third-party players, and includes Texas-led deals in the total.
Below, you’ll find the M&A rankings for law firms January through June for individual years for both deal count and deal value.
Texas-led
Kirkland recorded 26 transactions worth a combined $185.8 billion, while Latham’s Texas team led 10 billion‑dollar deals worth $40.6 billion. Gibson Dunn, by comparison, led fewer deals but aimed for the stars with SpaceX in the first six months, fueled by six billion‑plus transactions where they represented a principal, valued at $388.7 billion.
Sidley Austin and Simpson Thacher rounded out the top tier for Texas-led, with Sidley recording seven deals worth $12.1 billion and Simpson (now with a Dallas office!) leading five valued at $19.4 billion.
Texas-related
When you factor in Texas‑related roles (investment banks, special committees and other third parties), the picture is even more dynamic. Kirkland adds a few to its Texas-led total to record 32 billion‑dollar Texas‑related transactions worth $212.8 billion, while Latham is close behind with 30 deals totaling $127.96 billion.
Gibson Dunn again punches above its weight, appearing on eight Texas‑related matters with an aggregate value of $391.9 billion.
And Texas‑headquartered firms are not ceding the billion‑dollar spotlight to the global folks. Vinson & Elkins recorded six Texas‑related billion‑dollar transactions worth $79.28 billion and leads five deals for principals with combined value of $12.48 billion, confirming the firm’s continued hold on energy and infrastructure work. Haynes Boone shows up with three Texas‑led deals worth $5.04 billion.
