Baker Botts Elects Litigator Danny David as New Managing Partner

Texas-founded Baker Botts has elected Danny David as its 16th managing partner, the firm said Friday. David will begin a four-year term in the top role at the firm on August 1. He succeeds John Martin, who served as managing partner since 2019 and will step down at the end of the year to comply with the firm’s mandatory retirement requirement.

David came ahead of four other lawyers at the firm competing for the top position, Bloomberg Law reported. That included energy lawyer Jason Bennett, dealmaker Samantha Hale Crispin and trial lawyers Roger Fulghum and Kevin Sadler, according to sources. David was expected to win the election, sources told Bloomberg Law.

David is a Houston trial lawyer who leads the firmwide litigation practice group. He has spent the entirety of his 22-year legal career at Baker Botts and is a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. He has defended a wide range of energy companies in court over the past two decades, including Sunnova Energy International Inc., a major client for the firm. David has also advised United Airlines, Lyft, Inc., and Landry’s Restaurants, Inc., among others, according to court dockets and his law firm bio.

Baker Botts has seen its headcount decline in recent years, attributed partially to other large firms entering the Texas legal market. Most of the lawyers in the running for the managing partner position said they would seek a merger with another firm to obtain the scale needed to ward off poachers and capture more of the deals market, sources said.