15 Firms in Texas Achieve Lawbook 50 Elite Status

Despite ever-higher standards, more corporate law firms in Texas achieved Texas Lawbook 50 elite financial status last year than ever before. Eighteen business law firms reported revenue per lawyer for their Texas offices of $1.5 million in 2024. Eighteen firms also scored profits per partner of $3 million or more — though not the same 18. Thanks to scores of senior corporate lawyers now billing at hourly rates exceeding $2,000, 15 law firms operating in Texas achieved both of those criteria — up from 11 in 2023.

August 14, 2025 Mark Curriden

Big D and Big Ben: London Partner Discusses Haynes Boone’s Rising Global Reach

Haynes Boone's lateral partner activity in 2025 has been a case in point that no corporate law firm headquartered in Texas is expanding faster outside the state. One-fourth of the firm's 20 lateral partner additions this year have been in London. The Lawbook met in person with office co-leader Nick Davis, one of those 2025 recruits, earlier this summer. "The epicenter of the world seems to be heading towards Texas right now," he said in the interview.

August 12, 2025 Brooks Igo

Nat’l Firm Joins Bell Nunnally and Vartabedian in Summer Associate Bonuses

The number of business-focused law firms offering summer bonuses to associates is growing. New York-based corporate law firm Milbank became the largest firm to announce that it is offering summer bonuses for its associates. Two DFW boutique law firms, Bell Nunnally and Vartabedian, Hester & Haynes, announced during the past week that their partners were paying their associates summer bonuses in excess of $5,000. The managing partners at Vartabedian and Bell Nunnally said they are simply rewarding everyone's hard work and to share some of the fruits of a successful first half of the year.

August 8, 2025 Mark Curriden

Five Firms Lead Pack on H1 Lateral Hiring

Despite seven business-focused law firms in Texas boosting their ranks significantly through new hires, new data shows that lateral partner movement slowed during the first six months of 2025 — though the decline looks steeper than it really was because the first half of 2024 was a record-setting year for partner moves. The Texas offices of three law firms — Dykema, Greenberg Traurig and Jackson Walker — led the pack by each hiring nine partners from competitors during H1 2025.

July 31, 2025 Mark Curriden & Christi Trammell

Dorsey & Whitney’s New Managing Partner Has Texas Ties and Big Plans

Earlier this month, Peter Nelson began his three-year term as Managing Partner of Minneapolis-based Dorsey & Whitney. With 17 years at the firm, Nelson played a key role in expanding Dorsey’s presence, helping to integrate new market locations such as Dallas, which launched in early 2017 with attorneys — including Larry Makel, Gina Betts and Jamie Whatley — from what was then the Dallas office of Schiff Hardin. The Texas Lawbook recently talked to Nelson about Texas being a critical market for the firm’s current and future growth.

July 21, 2025 Jeff Schnick

Citi Law Firm Expert: ‘Fairly Optimistic Outlook for Rest of 2025’

Texas-based corporate law firms started 2025 strong, but they face multiple headwinds over the next several months. The largest law firms headquartered in Texas achieved 35 percent revenue increases during the first quarter of 2025 — triple the amount of their national competitors — even though legal demand grew less than one percent during the period, according to the nation’s leading legal industry financial analyst.

June 17, 2025 Mark Curriden

Lawbook 50: Four Texas Firms Growing East, West and Across the Seas

Baker Botts, Haynes Boone, Bracewell and Vinson & Elkins employed employed 2,360 lawyers and generated nearly $2.9 billion in firmwide revenues in 2024. All four Texas-headquartered corporate law firms reported record revenues and record profits in 2024, according to the Texas Lawbook 50. The data also shows another interesting trend: All four are growing more than twice as fast in their offices outside of Texas than they are in their home state operations.

June 4, 2025 Mark Curriden

Lawbook 50 — Texas Firms Reap Financial Benefits of a ‘Perfect Storm’

Corporate law firms in Texas had another blockbuster year in 2024. Record revenues. Record profits. The top business law firms operating in Texas in 2024 worked more hours for more corporate clients and charged those clients record-high rates — some now topping $2,600 an hour for premium services. The demand for high-dollar elite legal expertise and services in Texas came from companies and private equity firms involved in dealmaking for infrastructure and energy transition projects and businesses engaged in bet-the-company disputes, often battling other businesses or government agencies in court. The Texas Lawbook 50, which tracks the revenue generated by lawyers and law firms operating in Texas, found that 34 of the 50 largest corporate firms achieved record-high revenues in 2024, and an even higher percentage achieved record profits. Eight law firms grew revenue by 25 percent or more.

May 22, 2025 Mark Curriden

Lawbook 50 — The Texas Magnificent Seven

Seven corporate law firms operating in Texas witnessed extraordinary growth in 2024. The Texas version of the Magnificent Seven far outpaced their competitors by increasing Texas headcount by 24 percent in 2024 and Texas revenue by an astonishing 42 percent, according to The Texas Lawbook 50, which documents the annual Texas headcount and revenues of business law firms. Three of the Tex Mag Seven were founded in California, three in New York and one in Chicago. All seven firms achieved record-high revenues in 2024.

May 20, 2025 Mark Curriden

Kirkland is Texas’ First Billion-Dollar Law Firm

Kirkland & Ellis has become the baseball Hall of Famer Bob Gibson of corporate law firms — fiercely competitive and dominant, despised and envied by opponents and outrageously successful. Entering its second decade with offices in Texas, Kirkland achieved a new high in 2024 that even its Texas leader, Andy Calder, never conceived they could accomplish.

May 19, 2025 Mark Curriden