Nearly 500 Texas lawyers led M&A transactions in 2023. The Texas Lawbook’s exclusive Corporate Deal Tracker has the complete list, ranking them by deal count and deal value, by law firm, city and gender. There are a few surprises, such as the number of associates who led or co-led mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures for buyers, sellers and targets. There are a few new names in the top 50, including at No. 1.
But the CDT lead dealmakers list provides some data that has become expected, including how a lot of the lead legal advisors work at only a handful of law firms or how the dealmakers in one city dominate all the other metros combined. And, of course, there is the issue of diversity — or lack thereof — of those who lead M&A transactions in Texas. This article documents the lead and co-lead Texas lawyers for buyers, sellers and targets and is the result of months of data research and reporting by Christi Trammell, Allen Pusey and Jeff Schnick. It was written by Mark Curriden.