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.
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
© 2025 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
Haynes and Boone Expands in New York With 7-Lawyer Seward & Kissel Fund Finance, Securitization Team
3 minute read
'None of Us Like It': How Expedited Summer Associate Recruiting Affects Law Students and the Firms Hiring Them
Big Law Firms Sheppard Mullin, Morgan Lewis and Baker Botts Add Partners in Houston
5 minute read
Law Firms Mentioned
Trending Stories
- 1Judge Pauses Deadline for Federal Workers to Accept Trump Resignation Offer
- 2DeepSeek Isn’t Yet Impacting Legal Tech Development. But That Could Soon Change.
- 3'Landmark' New York Commission Set to Study Overburdened, Under-Resourced Family Courts
- 4Wave of Commercial Real Estate Refinance Could Drown Property Owners
- 5Redeveloping Real Estate After Natural Disasters: Challenges, Strategies and Opportunities
Who Got The Work
J. Brugh Lower of Gibbons has entered an appearance for industrial equipment supplier Devco Corporation in a pending trademark infringement lawsuit. The suit, accusing the defendant of selling knock-off Graco products, was filed Dec. 18 in New Jersey District Court by Rivkin Radler on behalf of Graco Inc. and Graco Minnesota. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi, is 3:24-cv-11294, Graco Inc. et al v. Devco Corporation.
Who Got The Work
Rebecca Maller-Stein and Kent A. Yalowitz of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer have entered their appearances for Hanaco Venture Capital and its executives, Lior Prosor and David Frankel, in a pending securities lawsuit. The action, filed on Dec. 24 in New York Southern District Court by Zell, Aron & Co. on behalf of Goldeneye Advisors, accuses the defendants of negligently and fraudulently managing the plaintiff's $1 million investment. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Vernon S. Broderick, is 1:24-cv-09918, Goldeneye Advisors, LLC v. Hanaco Venture Capital, Ltd. et al.
Who Got The Work
Attorneys from A&O Shearman has stepped in as defense counsel for Toronto-Dominion Bank and other defendants in a pending securities class action. The suit, filed Dec. 11 in New York Southern District Court by Bleichmar Fonti & Auld, accuses the defendants of concealing the bank's 'pervasive' deficiencies in regards to its compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act and the quality of its anti-money laundering controls. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, is 1:24-cv-09445, Gonzalez v. The Toronto-Dominion Bank et al.
Who Got The Work
Crown Castle International, a Pennsylvania company providing shared communications infrastructure, has turned to Luke D. Wolf of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani to fend off a pending breach-of-contract lawsuit. The court action, filed Nov. 25 in Michigan Eastern District Court by Hooper Hathaway PC on behalf of The Town Residences LLC, accuses Crown Castle of failing to transfer approximately $30,000 in utility payments from T-Mobile in breach of a roof-top lease and assignment agreement. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Susan K. Declercq, is 2:24-cv-13131, The Town Residences LLC v. T-Mobile US, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Wilfred P. Coronato and Daniel M. Schwartz of McCarter & English have stepped in as defense counsel to Electrolux Home Products Inc. in a pending product liability lawsuit. The court action, filed Nov. 26 in New York Eastern District Court by Poulos Lopiccolo PC and Nagel Rice LLP on behalf of David Stern, alleges that the defendant's refrigerators’ drawers and shelving repeatedly break and fall apart within months after purchase. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Joan M. Azrack, is 2:24-cv-08204, Stern v. Electrolux Home Products, Inc.
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
