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Texas Legal Market: Soft Landing, New Take-Offs or Just More of the Same?

The Texas legal market — just like the national economy — seems to be moving forward but at a considerably slower and more cautious pace. Lateral hiring of associates, especially transactional practitioners, is rare and six-digit signing bonuses are history. Partners with strong books of business, however, remain in demand.

Litigation partners, senior associates and counsel are more sought-after than those in the transactional practices. The DFW lateral hiring legal market is a tad stronger than Houston right now. Austin’s legal hiring has cooled considerably.

The Texas Lawbook interviewed four Texas legal industry insiders to get their insights on the Texas legal market and what they expect for the rest of 2023 and 2024.

CDT Roundup: 23 Deals, 17 Firms, 230 Lawyers, $6.4B

Hydrogen ranks No. 1 in the Periodic Table of Elements, but its carbon-heavy production process has made it a target – not only of environmental concerns — but of potential solutions. Its elemental role in a variety of industrial production processes has made the pursuit of CCS technologies (carbon capture and sequestration) a rising star in a Texas-led pursuit of scalable environmental abatement. Alan Alexander, a partner at Vinson & Elkins, has made himself part of that pursuit. His views are part of this week’s CDT Roundup, along with the usual summaries of new transactions and the roster of lawyers who made them.

Texas Lawyers Hit $2,000 an Hour

Just a dozen years ago, a handful of lawyers in Texas breached the $1,000 hourly rate barrier. The $1K lawyers were the best of the best in their practice areas: trial lawyers Steve Susman, Tom Melsheimer, Charles Schwartz and Harry Reasoner for bet-the-company litigation, or deal lawyers like Jeff Chapman, Andy Calder, Tom Roberts or Michael Dillard to lead mega-billion-dollar transactions. This year, a handful of Texas lawyers broke through another billing barrier: $2,000 an hour. Dozens more are expected to start charging clients $2K next year.

Litigation Roundup: Hogan Lovells to Defend Against FTC’s Texas Anesthesiology Monopoly Suit, Houston Jury Awards Defendant $32.5M in Construction Dispute

In this edition of Litigation Roundup, the former general counsel of the Houston Housing Authority has her qui tam False Claims Act suit partially revived by the Fifth Circuit, an allegedly undisclosed personal relationship between a magistrate judge and a plaintiff attorney who secured a $124.5 million award in her court gets a second look, and a former CEO of a software company loses his bid to keep a $20 million suit in Texas courts.

Judge Dropped the Ball by Upping Disabled Ex-Player’s Benefits, NFL Pension Plan Tells 5th Circuit

The league’s retirement plan is appealing a Dallas federal judge’s 2022 ruling in favor of former running back Michael Cloud, who said he was denied the benefits he deserved after concussions and other injuries cut his playing career short. The judge wrote that Cloud’s case fits a pattern by the pension plan of nickel-and-diming retired players “suffering from the devastating effects of severe head trauma.”

Houston Judge Orders Ethics Training, $525K Sanction Against 2 Attorneys

Harris County District Judge Elaine Palmer has ordered attorneys Michael D. Sydow and Chidi D. Anunobi to take 10 hours of legal ethics education classes each year for the next five years after finding they filed for a lawsuit for an improper purpose on behalf of their litigation management company client, Iron Oak. The lawsuit was brought in an attempt to collect $10 million from inventors Michael E. Porter and John T. Preston and their company Continuum Energy Technologies.

P.S. — A Golf Classic, A Virtual Lottery, A Cavernous Case

This week’s edition of P.S. features an upcoming golf classic that will support the operations of a nonprofit fighting homelessness, a cluster of Holland & Knight lawyers moving up the ranks of the National Hispanic Bar Association, a Dallas lawyer who has joined Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas’ board, a successful virtual fundraiser benefiting legal aid and the dates in October that Dallas-area clients to receive pro bono legal advice by phone. Plus: Kentucky cave trivia involving a legal battle and “One-Eyed Joe.”

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