The Texas lawyers at two Houston-headquartered corporate law firms — Vinson & Elkins and Baker Botts — and Los Angeles-founded Latham & Watkins were the lead legal advisors for the most issuers and underwriters in capital market transactions during 2023, according to The Texas Lawbook’s exclusive Corporate Deal Tracker database.
Hunton Andrews Kurth’s lawyers in Texas, far and away, represented the most financial advisors, investors, purchasers, and other third parties in securities and debt offerings and other CapM activity.
Data reported to the CDT shows that the Texas attorneys at V&E advised the principals in 40 capital market transactions and third parties in 15 additional matters. Baker Botts lawyers in Texas were lead counsel in 37 CapM deals and represented third parties in nine other offerings.
Latham’s lawyers in Houston and Austin were lead counsel in 36 capital market transactions but also represented third parties in 27 different offerings.
Gibson Dunn, Kirkland & Ellis, Sidley Austin and Haynes Boone round out the CDT top seven for being lead counsel for the principals in CapM.
CDT data shows that the Texas lawyers for Hunton AK worked on 92 capital markets transactions — 13 as lead counsel for issuers and underwriters and 79 as legal advisors for third parties.
In all, 23 corporate law firms with offices in Texas worked on CapM deals in 2023 and nine of those firms handled 20 or more offerings for various clients.
The CDT documents corporate transactional work, such as M&A and CapM transactions, handled by Texas lawyers regardless of whether the clients or the transactions were based in Texas. The CDT divides corporate legal work for capital markets into two categories: (1) Texas lawyers who lead or co-lead transactions for primary parties; and (2) Texas lawyers who work on transactions for third parties, including but not limited to, investors, lenders, financial advisors, auditors, accountants, conflicts committees, consultants, brokers, regulatory authorities and more.
