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Simpson Thacher’s Really, Really Big Year

The Texas Lawbook launched the Texas Lawbook 50 and the Corporate Deal Tracker in 2015 — two exclusive databases that calculate the law firm headcounts and revenue in Texas. The CDT documented those law firms’ M&A and capital markets transactions. Simpson Thacher didn’t make the leaderboard of either database in 2015.

A decade later, however, and the elite Wall Street corporate law firm is vaulting up both rankings by increasing its 2025 Texas headcount by 26 percent, its Texas revenue by 34 percent and leaping into the upper echelons of Texas dealmakers.

Mark Curriden

The Texas Twelve

Eleven of the dozen Texas-based corporate law firms in the Texas Lawbook 50 experienced record revenue and profit in 2025, and the 12th firm did pretty damn well, too.

Citing heavy demand in legal services for real estate, tax, corporate transactions, fundings, commercial litigation and intellectual property disputes, the Texas-based lawyers for the Texas 12 generated $3.58 billion in 2025 — 10.56 percent more than the year before, according to the Lawbook 50.

Mark Curriden

Texas Lawbook 50 — The Beast

The Texas Lawbook 50 rankings by revenue debuted eight years ago this week. Vinson & Elkins topped the 2017 charts with $484 million in revenue generated by their Texas lawyers. They were followed by Baker Botts, Norton Rose Fulbright, Hunton Andrews Kurth, Haynes Boone and Jackson Walker. Ranked 11th in the chart was a relative newcomer to the state: Kirkland & Ellis, which reported $187 million in Texas revenue — double what the firm had reported a year earlier.

This week, the Lawbook 50 will unveil the top 50 firms that generated the most revenue in their Texas offices. Kirkland is not ranked 11th any longer.

Mark Curriden

The SoCal Five — Franchising Hotel California to Texas

Don Henley and the Eagles could very easily have been writing about Southern California corporate law firms checking into the Hotel California during their constant and seemingly endless, decades-long expansion efforts.

They are all checking into Texas — and with the money they are making here, they will never leave.

Mark Curriden

The Texas Trio: Different Paths to Breakout Results

Three large corporate firms — all with deep Texas roots and Texas-sized offices. They are the second, third and fourth largest law firms operating in Texas by lawyer headcount. All three are in growth mode. All three reported record revenues and record profits in 2025.

Combined, Jackson Walker, Haynes Boone and Norton Rose Fulbright saw their 1,364 Texas lawyers generate a combined $1.53 billion in revenue last year — a 15 percent increase over 2024, according to new Texas Lawbook 50 data.

Leaders for the trio of firms say the first quarter of 2026 is off to another record start.

Mark Curriden

Texas Lawbook 50: Despite Historic Demand, Law Firm Headcount Grows Slowly (Updated)

For the first-time ever, Texas has a corporate law firm with 500 attorneys working in the state. A second firm is just two lawyers shy of 500. Four law firms now have 400 or more attorneys and 11 have 200 or more business lawyers operating in Texas, according to new data research by The Texas Lawbook.

Even so, the number of business lawyers in Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio is not growing fast enough to handle the increased demand for legal services from corporate clients.

Mark Curriden

Texas Lawbook Honors Sidley Austin Chair Yvette Ostolaza

Yvette Ostolaza grew up in an immigrant neighborhood in Miami, the daughter of parents who fled Cuba in the 1960s. She learned English from watching Sesame Street. As a young teenager, she lied about her age to get a job at Sears to make extra money for her family. When she announced that she wanted to be the first in the family to go to college, they told her she was crazy.

Four decades later, Ostolaza became the first Latina and first Dallas lawyer to lead a global corporate law firm — a position she has held since 2022 at Sidley Austin, a 2,300-lawyer firm with 21 offices and more than $3.7 billion in annual revenue.

The Texas Lawbook announced Thursday that it is awarding the first-ever Texas Lawbook Law Firm Leadership Award to Ostolaza.

Mark Curriden

Citi Report: Texas Law Firms Hit Double-Digit Revenue, Profit Increases in 2025

Despite weak demand, a decline in productivity and lower hourly rate increases than the national average, corporate law firms based in Texas experienced major increases in revenue and profits per partner in 2025, according to a new report by Citibank’s Global Wealth Law Firm Group. Citi’s Michael McKenney said 2025 started slow for the business law community with fears about a federal government shutdown and other macro concerns but ended the year in record fashion.

Mark Curriden

After the Claude Crash — What Agentic Tools Mean for Legal Research Vendors and Texas Lawyers

On Feb. 3, a lot of legal and data folks discovered they suddenly cared about stock tickers. Anthropic announced legal plug-ins for its agentic platform, Claude Cowork, and within 48 hours investors shaved tens of billions off the market caps of Thomson Reuters (Westlaw/CoCounsel), RELX (LexisNexis) and Wolters Kluwer. Headlines framed it as AI killing legal software. Social channels called it the “Claude Crash” and the “SaaSpocalypse.” If you work in a Texas law firm or legal department, it felt like watching a tornado touch down a few miles over — not on your roof yet, but close enough to change your weekend plans.

Let’s separate the market drama from the operating reality.

Greg Lambert

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