There were scores of multibillion-dollar corporate mergers and some landmark commercial trial verdicts in 2025.
The year was filled with big stories. Dallas-based Dean Omar Branham Shirley achieved some huge successes in a series of jury trials against Johnson & Johnson in its talc powder litigation. U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn retired after 25 years on the bench and joined her husband’s law firm, Lynn Pinker. Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht retired and joined Jackson Walker. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit enforced its conservative inclinations only to see many of its decisions reversed by an equally conservative U.S. Supreme Court. A federal grand jury in New York indicted Dallas-based Beneficient founder Bradley Heppner for securities fraud.
Jackson Walker made efforts to settle many of the claims against the firm for its role in the scandal involving former Houston Bankruptcy Judge David Jones, only to see those settlement agreements placed on hold by a federal judge. Kirkland & Ellis became the first law firm in history to report $1 billion in revenue generated by its Texas offices. And Locke Lord completed its merger with Troutman Pepper on Jan. 2.
But hands down, the biggest story of the year was the Trump administration’s executive orders against large corporate law firms, including a handful that have offices in Texas.
And the clearcut Texas law firm of the year is Susman Godfrey, the Houston-based litigation powerhouse that successfully sued and obtained settlements from Fox News in 2023 and Newsmax in 2025 on behalf of Dominion Voting Systems for claims about the 2020 election. Related lawsuits are ongoing against defendants such as One America News Network and businessman Mike Lindell.
When President Trump slapped large corporate law firms with executive orders declaring them threats to national security and banning their lawyers from federal buildings, many of the largest — and once considered most powerful — law firms in the U.S. chose to cut deals with the White House instead of fighting.
Susman Godfrey, widely recognized as one of the most respected trial law firms in the U.S., sued the Trump administration and won restraining orders prohibiting the enforcement of the executive orders.
But the partners at Susman Godfrey not only fought back — they challenged the White House head-on by representing the American Bar Association in its lawsuit against the Trump administration for targeting law firms in a conspiracy to undermine the rule of law. The case is pending.
In addition, many law firms and corporate legal departments significantly reduced or even eliminated their diversity and inclusion programs under threats from the EEOC and anti-diversity groups. But Susman Godfrey did the opposite — it expanded its diversity initiatives.
Susman Godfrey’s clients financially rewarded the firm. Managing partner Vineet Bhatia told The Lawbook that 2025 was its second-best year ever, including achieving a $1.5 billion settlement with Anthropic over copyright infringement.
The U.S. Justice Department has appealed the district court’s ruling in favor of Susman Godfrey.
Even many Texas law firms that the Trump administration did not target declined to sign amicus briefs supporting the legal positions of those law firms that chose to fight. Several Texas law firms did stand with Susman Godfrey by joining amicus briefs, including Yetter Coleman, Carrington Coleman, Gibbs & Bruns, Graves Dougherty, Lynn Pinker, Nachawati Law Group, Aldous Law, Crain Brogdon, Sommerman, McCaffity, Quesada & Geisler and Waters Kraus.