In the first half of the year, dealmaking has been defined by an unmistakable top tier of law firms that dominate the M&A stats from every angle. Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Gibson Dunn, Vinson & Elkins and Sidley Austin are the only firms that land in the top 10 on all four core measures of from The Texas Lawbook’s exclusive Corporate Deal Tracker for 1H 2026 M&A: overall Texas‑led deal count and value, as well as Texas‑related deal count and value.
For the first half of the year, these five firms and their Texas lawyers formed the “starting lineup” for buyers and sellers who needed wraparound services, expertise and scale.
What sets the Texas Fab Five apart is that each arrives from a slightly different angle.
Per usual, Kirkland and Latham anchor the high‑volume end of the spectrum, running enormous books of Texas‑related deals.
Gibson Dunn dominates the top of the value leaderboard, with transactions that generate staggering amounts (thanks, SpaceX!).
Vinson & Elkins and Sidley provide the bridge between those extremes with deal counts that show substantial total value and a strong share of Texas‑led work.
The megadeals have gotten a lot of love as of late, but Texas lawyers at these firms are also delivering consistent core middle‑market activity, too.
What does the starting lineup look like? Let’s see:
Point guard: Kirkland runs the offense with speed and precision, with distribution between the most deal volume and the second-highest value amounts.
Two guard: Latham as the shooter, putting up high numbers in both count and value.
Small forward: Sidley is the versatile two‑way player that’s everywhere on the court.
Power forward: Ever consistent, Vinson & Elkins is the bruising Texas native with strong board‑level presence and middle‑market muscle.
Center: Gibson Dunn owns the paint with the biggest deal values: fewer touches than the guards, but every one of them is a heavyweight rebound or backboard-shattering dunk.
Sixth Man of the Half Year goes to Haynes Boone, which narrowly missed ranking in the top ten across all four CDT categories, but scored extremely well in three of them.
Before we get into the box score, a few things to remember: The Lawbook prioritizes Texas-led transactions since the law firms representing the buyers, sellers and targets almost always earn more money because they have more lawyers from different practice groups, including antitrust, employment, executive compensation, securities and tax, working on the deals. Transactions led for principals by Texas lawyers are the gold standard for measuring activity by the state’s dealmakers.
To get a broader picture of activity, the CDT also measures Texas-related transactions, which count lawyers representing investment banks, conflicts committees, or other third-party players, and includes Texas-led deals in the total.
Some firms report every deal they’re involved in for both Texas-led and Texas-related; others focus mostly on deals led for principals, while some firms report a mix of deals between them. And not all deals represented in the leaderboards have disclosed values associated with them.
Still, clear trends emerge, and the CDT is the most complete snapshot of M&A activity that measures the work of Texas lawyers and the deals they are doing anywhere, not just in the Lone Star State.
Below, you’ll find the M&A rankings for law firms for January through June for both deal count and deal value in Texas-led and Texas-related.
