Homegrown Texas Firms Lose Ground on Lawyer Head Count
Close to half of the firms with the most lawyers in Texas are based outside the Lone Star state, underscoring the numbers of national and international firms moving into Texas.
July 02, 2020 at 01:15 PM
3 minute read
Nearly half of the 100 firms with the most lawyers in Texas are headquartered outside the Lone Star state, providing more evidence that out-of-state firms are growing their market share.
In 2019, 12 of the 25 firms with the largest Texas operations were not homegrown firms. That compares to 11 of the 25 firms in 2018, and only eight of the 25 firms in 2017.
A total of 45 of the 100 firms on the Texas Top 100 chart are not based in Texas, up from about a third of the firms the prior year.
The fastest growing firms among the top 25 are all based outside Texas. Kirkland & Ellis, which launched its Houston office in 2014, had a total of 206 lawyers in Texas in 2019, up 33%, Berry Appleman & Leiden, which opened shop in Houston and Dallas in 2004, grew in 2019 to 112 lawyers in Texas, up 90% from 2018.
Foley & Lardner was another fast-growing out-of-state firm in the top quartile of the chart, with 138 lawyers in Texas, up 19% from the prior year. The firm moved into Texas in 2018 through a merger with Dallas firm Gardere Wynne Sewell.
The top 10 firms by head count in 2019 are the same as in 2018, although there was a little movement in the rankings. Eight of the 10 firms at the top of the chart—led by Vinson & Elkins—are based in Texas. The other two—Norton Rose Fulbright and Hunton Andrews Kurth—have their roots in a Big Tex firm.
Vinson & Elkins had 419 lawyers in Texas in 2019, up slightly from 2018, and Norton Rose Fulbright took the second berth on the chart with 381 Texas lawyers. Norton Rose Fulbright was created in 2013 in a merger between Houston-based Fulbright & Jaworski and U.K. firm Norton Rose.
The next three firms are Jackson Walker, Baker Botts and Haynes and Boone. Jackson Walker is the largest Texas-only firm, and it moved up in the rankings to take the third spot for 2019, leapfrogging over Baker Botts and Haynes and Boone.
Overall, the chart tracks Texas lawyer head counts ranging from 419 at Vinson & Elkins to 36 at four homegrown firms—Whitaker Chalk Swindle & Schwartz, Brackett & Ellis, Greer Herz & Adams and Conley Rose. That compares to a range of 406 to 34 lawyers in 2018.
The lawyer counts in Texas are full-time equivalent lawyer counts for 2019. Numbers for a few firms on the chart are estimates, because the lawyer counts were not immediately available. Due to a tie at the bottom of the chart, it actually ranks 101 firms.
|Read More
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View All
Homegrown Texas Law Firms Expanded Outside the Lone Star State in 2024 As Out-of-State Firms Moved In
5 minute read
Energy Lawyers Working in Texas Expect Strong Demand to Continue in 2025 Across Energy Sector
6 minute read
'Never Been More Dynamic': Big Law Leaders Reflect on 2024 and Expectations Next Year
7 minute readLaw Firms Mentioned
Trending Stories
- 1Call for Nominations: Elite Trial Lawyers 2025
- 2Senate Judiciary Dems Release Report on Supreme Court Ethics
- 3Senate Confirms Last 2 of Biden's California Judicial Nominees
- 4Morrison & Foerster Doles Out Year-End and Special Bonuses, Raises Base Compensation for Associates
- 5Tom Girardi to Surrender to Federal Authorities on Jan. 7
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250
