Marshall Redmon, managing partner of Phelps Dunbar.

Phelps Dunbar, the Gulf Coast firm that moved into Texas in 1990, is expanding in the Lone Star State with some lateral hiring, a new office in Fort Worth, and plans to launch an Austin office in 2020.

"We see Texas as a great opportunity for our firm and it mixes well with the regional practice we have along the Gulf Coast. It's just an excellent opportunity, a great state to be in," said Matt Terrell, the managing partner of the firm's offices in Fort Worth and Southlake, which is near DFW International Airport.

Firmwide managing partner Marshall Redmon said it more succinctly: "We are bullish on Texas."

The new Fort Worth office had a soft opening in temporary space Sept. 16, when several  lawyers from the Southlake office moved to the new location, Terrell said. Redmon said in an email that Terrell and partners Mark Daniel and Claudine Jackson and counsel Joe Reimer will lead the office.

Redmon said the Am Law 200 firm is looking to expand its transactional practice in Texas, and Fort Worth's "dynamic and growing economy" fits well with the firm's real estate, banking and corporate transactional expertise.

Terrell said the firm is planning to announce some new hires for both north Texas offices in the near future, in the litigation, eminent domain and condemnation and transactional practices.

In Houston, Phelps Dunbar recently hired condemnation lawyers Frederick Junkin and Elly Austin Vecchio as partners. They came from Hunton Andrews Kurth, which declined to comment on their departure.

Junkin said he and Vecchio moved to Phelps Dunbar because they see a great opportunity to expand their practice in Texas, including in central Texas, where the firm is looking at opening an Austin office.

Terrell, who leads the firm's condemnation practice, said his group specializes in work for utility and power companies and for natural gas pipelines, while Junkin and Vecchio handle matters related to pipelines and roadways, and represent water districts.

"It's a good mix," Terrell said.

Junkin said he is currently working on matters in Harris County for the city of Houston, Magellan Pipeline Co., V-Tex Logistics, and the West Harris County Regional Water Authority.

Noting some big past projects, Junkin said he represented the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority in connection with construction of the baseball stadium where the Houston Astros play and the basketball arena that is home to the Houston Rockets.

Redmon said Junkin will be practicing in Austin as well as Houston, and because of that, the firm is likely to launch the Austin office with the condemnation practice.

Founded in New Orleans, Phelps Dunbar has 13 offices, its footprint stretching from Texas to Florida.