On a dark desert highway
Cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas
Rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance
I saw a shimmering light
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim
I had to stop for the night
Don Henley and the Eagles could very easily have been writing about Southern California corporate law firms checking into the Hotel California.
They are all checking into Texas — and with the money they are making here, they will never leave.
News articles have chronicled the number of California corporations — Toyota, Chevron, Tesla, Charles Schwab and McKesson, to name a few — that have relocated to Texas.
Often overlooked is the story of the Southern California law firms — the SoCal gang of five — that followed and the enormous financial and professional successes they have achieved — in most cases, much greater achievements than their own clients.
Separately and combined, the Texas offices of these five law firms — Gibson Dunn, Latham & Watkins, O’Melveny & Myers, Paul Hastings and Sheppard Mullin — scored record revenues and profits in 2025, just as they did in 2024. All five achieved remarkable headcount growth last year. All five saw their Texas revenue hit nine digits last year.
And all five say that 2026 is off to an even better start.
A decade ago, Latham, Gibson Dunn and Paul Hastings combined had fewer than 150 attorneys in Texas, and their lawyers generated a total of $210.5 million, according to Texas Lawbook 50 data.
Only one of the firms, Latham, was in the Lawbook top 20 in 2016. O’Melveny and Sheppard Mullin had not even opened Texas outposts yet.
Exclusive new Texas Lawbook 50 data shows that the five firms combined employed the full-time equivalent of nearly 650 attorneys in the state in 2025. Two of the firms, Gibson Dunn and Latham, ranked in the Lawbook 50 top 10 by revenue. All five are among the top 32 firms.
Combined, they generated more than $1.26 billion in revenue in 2025 — $240 million more than the year before for a 22.7 percent increase.
“Southern California law firms grew revenue by 15.8 percent in 2025 — well above the national average of 12 percent,” Michael McKenney of Citibank’s Global Wealth Law Firm Group told The Lawbook in an interview. “The work those firms are doing in Texas is a key part of their success.”
Gibson Dunn
Fueled by leading huge M&A transactions and monster courtroom victories for Texas clients, Gibson Dunn scored its best year since opening an office in Dallas in 1984.
The Los Angeles-founded corporate law firm added 13 attorneys in its Dallas and Houston offices in 2025, topping 200 lawyers for the first time and jumping into the top 10 Texas law firms by headcount.
Lawbook 50 data shows that Gibson Dunn’s Texas lawyers grew revenue by 17.3 percent to $421 million.
“We get a lot of really big deals for the size of our transactional practice,” said Krista Hanvey, co-managing partner of Gibson Dunn’s Dallas office.
According to the Texas Lawbook’s exclusive Corporate Deal Tracker database, Gibson Dunn lawyers in Houston and Dallas led a dozen billion-dollar-plus M&A transactions in 2025.
Two Houston partners for Gibson Dunn, Tull Florey and Rahul Vashi, each led or co-led three M&A transactions with a price tag of $1 billion or more in 2025, according to CDT data.
Gibson Dunn partner Rob Little in Dallas was the co-lead legal advisor for SpaceX in its $17 billion purchase of spectrum licenses with EchoStar.
The firm’s litigation team also scored big wins in 2025.
Houston co-managing partner Collin Cox was the lead trial lawyer for high-end real estate developer Gray Services and Gray Development Group in securing a $296 million jury trial verdict against Florida-based ZOM Holding in a contract dispute.
Last March, Dallas co-managing partner Trey Cox led a Gibson Dunn litigation team representing Energy Transfer in a $660 million jury verdict against Greenpeace in North Dakota.
“The litigation practice in Texas is incredibly busy and getting busier,” Cox said. “Business courts are picking up cases, and they are disposing of cases quickly and effectively.”
Latham & Watkins
Latham started a wave of national law firms invading Texas when it opened in Houston in 2010.
In 2016, the Los Angeles-founded firm’s Texas lawyers generated an estimated $105 million in revenue, according to Lawbook 50 data.
But 2025 is, according to the numbers, Latham’s best year in Texas during its 15 years in the state.
Lawbook 50 data shows that, last year, Latham’s Texas offices in Houston and Austin generated $388 million — a 22 percent increase over 2024.
“We are seeing green lights across the board,” said Nick Dhesi, managing partner of Latham’s Houston office. “Private equity is driving a lot. The capital markets have roared back. There is so much activity in traditional natural resources combined with power generation.”
Latham’s Houston and Austin lawyers led 14 billion-dollar M&A transactions, according to CDT data.
Latham partners Justin Stolte and Ryan Maierson each led or co-led three billion-dollar deals in 2025.
“We have big ambitions for Texas,” Dhesi said. “The scale of what we are achieving across the market is far beyond what we imagined.”
Earlier this year, Latham announced the opening of its Dallas office with the hiring of Kirkland & Ellis litigation partner Taj Clayton and Winston & Strawn partner Scott Thomas.
Paul Hastings
In 2012, Paul Hastings joined the wave of out-of-state law firms that burst into Texas following the Great Recession by opening an outpost in Houston.
The firm had kept its Texas presence small for a decade until September 2023, when the firm hired high-profile Weil Gotshal litigator Paul Genender to launch its Dallas office. Lawbook 50 research shows that Texas lawyers for Paul Hastings generated $56.7 million in 2023.
In 2024 and 2025, Paul Hastings went on a hiring spree, adding about 70 lawyers, including three securities and capital markets lawyers from Akin, eight corporate finance partners from Vinson & Elkins led by partner Erec Winandy, two Winston & Strawn litigators, a bankruptcy partner from Weil Gotshal, an environmental litigation partner from Morgan Lewis and nationally recognized cybersecurity and privacy litigation expert Michelle Reed, also from Akin.
The result: Lawbook 50 data shows that Paul Hastings’ FTE lawyer count in Texas has grown to 96. The firm’s 2025 revenue from its Texas lawyers soared 24.5 percent to $200.5 million.
“Our Texas platform continues to grow and we are gaining significant market share as we add premier talent and expand work on important mandates with new and existing clients,” Genender told The Lawbook. “Demand is up. Our corporate and litigation teams are very busy, and we added depth to both benches in 2025 and expect that to continue this year.”
Genender, who is co-chair of Paul Hastings’ Dallas office, said the strong demand from 2025 “has carried into the start of 2026.”
“We will continue to strategically expand in areas where we can add premier talent that creates opportunity for exponential growth on our platform,” he said.
O’Melveny & Myers
No law firm in the Lawbook 50 grew its 2025 revenue by a larger percentage than O’Melveny.
Since it opened its Austin and Dallas offices in 2021 with some key hires — including former Norton Rose Fulbright senior bankruptcy partner Lou Strubeck, Baker Botts litigation partners Tim Durst and Kristin Cope and former Locke Lord transactional partner Whit Roberts — the firm has steadily grown its lawyer headcount.
By any account, last year was O’Melveny’s best year in Texas yet.
“2025 was an extremely successful year,” said Kim Williams, the firm’s Dallas managing partner, who joined O’Melveny from Locke Lord in 2023. “We were able to draw on the depth and cohesion of the O’Melveny platform. Everyone is very busy.”
Lawbook 50 data shows the firm added the equivalent of 10 full-time lawyers and reported 89 attorneys in Texas.
Those Texas lawyers for O’Melveny generated $133.3 million in revenue in 2025 — an astonishing 41.3 percent increase from the prior year.
Williams said the firm’s energy litigation, intellectual property litigation, private equity and transactional practices were the busiest in 2025 and remain hot so far in 2026.
For example, Strubeck represents the creditors committee in the bankruptcy case of Dr. Phil McGraw’s former media company, Merit Street Media. Cope represented Southwest Airlines in its defense of a racial discrimination claim brought by Edward Blum’s American Alliance for Equal Rights over the Dallas airline’s efforts to help low-income Hispanic college students visit their families during Christmas. The case settled by Southwest paying one penny.
Sheppard Mullin
In 2023, Sheppard Mullin barely snuck into the Lawbook 50 rankings for Texas revenue at $65 million.
The Los Angeles-founded firm has experienced back-to-back hugely successful years, growing revenue from its Texas operations by 48 percent and 24.6 percent, respectively.
Sheppard opened in Dallas in 2018 with the hires of former Locke Lord IP partner Jason Mueller and Polsinelli shareholders Stephen Fox, Gemma Descoteaux and Bill Mateja. In 2025, the firm added partners with practices in healthcare, executive compensation and six lawyers from Bradley Arant, whose practice focuses on government investigations and white-collar criminal defense.
The firm opened its Houston office in 2022.
Lawbook 50 data shows that Sheppard has seen its lawyer headcount grow to 92 lawyers in Dallas and Houston. And those lawyers have been incredibly busy.
Its Texas lawyers generated $119.6 million in 2025.
About Texas Lawbook 50
The Texas Lawbook 50 is the result of multiple efforts, including direct survey responses from about 70 law firms operating in Texas regarding their headcount, total revenues, revenues per lawyer and profits per equity partner. Most firms provided the requested data. Other law firms provided simple lawyer headcount and RPL, which were used to calculate Texas revenues. The Lawbook also used other sources, including interviews with key partners, former partners, legal industry analysts, as well as data from publications such as American Lawyer and other third-party sources that collect and analyze firm revenues.