Even by Big Law’s standard of hyper-competitive hiring, the Dallas lateral market stands out.
It’s a market where newcomers swing big to survive and firms pounce on the faintest cracks in rivals’ armor. Large-scale raids, such as the moving of a dozen partners from Winston & Strawn to King & Spalding over the past three months, don’t surprise the locals.
“It’s not shocking,” said Jeff Bloom, managing principal at Abbey Partners. “When you see an office that’s new, there’s a window of time that you try to be aggressive.”
Law firms are storming the Dallas Fort Worth metro area to hire lawyers because of a surge of reincorporations, three new stock exchanges and the rapid growth of a business-friendly corridor nicknamed Y’all Street, lawyers and recruiters said.
Dallas is Texas’ second-largest legal market, behind Houston, but with a more diversified base including energy, healthcare, retail, real estate, banking, finance, tech, and tax. Big Law has captured work in high-profile reincorporations and in the Texas Business Courts, which opened in 2024.
Gibson Dunn served as counsel to Nasdaq in forming its regional headquarters there. Haynes Boone advised on the creation of the Texas Stock Exchange, backed by Citadel Securities and BlackRock Inc. to launch this year.
Such opportunities have pushed Big Law firms to staff up. The number of lateral moves in the AM Law 100 and 200 firms in Dallas in the last year have been running about 15% above 2019 levels, with activity slightly leaning toward litigation, said Timothy Regan, founder of ELR Legal Search.
“Dallas is caught up in the headlines now in a positive way,” Regan said. “This is the most aggressive I’ve ever seen firms.”
King & Spalding
When King & Spalding launched its Dallas office in 2024, it hired Veronica Moyé, a Dallas native and former Gibson Dunn litigation chair, and added lawyers slowly with an eye on the long game.
The firm had a target in mind: Thomas Melsheimer and his litigation practice at Winston & Strawn, which Moyé recently described as “the Dream Team.” Melsheimer, one of Texas’ most prominent trial lawyers known for successfully defending billionaire Mark Cuban on insider trading charges, said he knew Veronica and her husband, Texas judge Eric V. Moyé, for many years.
After six months of conversations that began in mid-2025, Melsheimer said he became “convinced that King & Spalding’s elite litigation platform was the best place for our group.”
In February, King & Spalding named Melsheimer Dallas managing partner and global head of trial. In a series of moves, the firm hired 31 Winston lawyers, including 12 partners for its Dallas office. Thirty nine Winston lawyers joined the firm across its national offices.
“We’re looking to grow the office with elite talent,” said Melsheimer, who declined to discuss specifics. “We’re going to talk to people from all firms all over the city and state.”
He said “there are challenges” with the Dallas lateral market. “When new firms come in, or when firms are trying to build out what they already have, there’s not an unlimited number of people to seek out.”
Y’all Street Effect
‘Y’all Street’ represents a Dallas-centric shift of capital and high-stakes corporate litigation driven by the state’s business-friendly environment, lower costs and growing population.
“‘Y’all Street’ is very real,” Moyé said. “Anytime you have that much business growth, the need for lawyers across all practices increases dramatically.”
Dechert LLP in January announced plans to open a Dallas office. In February, Latham & Watkins hired a Kirkland litigation partner to lead its new office there. That same month, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett snagged Kirkland’s high-profile partner David Nemecek while announcing its own Dallas office.
Perkins Coie, Sidley Austin, and Paul Hastings are among firms relocating to larger spaces. Paul Hastings, which opened its Dallas office in 2024 by poaching a large team from Vinson & Elkins, said in email it now has 43 lawyers there.
Measured Approach
Not every firm is arriving looking to assemble an army. Some corporate heavyweights such as Latham & Watkins and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett hired a handful of partners from Kirkland & Ellis when opening their own Dallas offices this year. These firms are “not rushing to fill their offices to add to a headcount,” Bloom said. Instead, they are “letting the market come to them.”
Vinson & Elkins has held steady at roughly 150 lawyers in Dallas, said Michael Holmes, vice chair and litigation head at the firm and a Dallas native. The firm is “trying to be deliberate and methodical” about growth.
“It’s not a matter of coming in and saying we need to make a major pivot to deal with this,” he said.
Still, he acknowledged that his phone has been ringing more. Since politicians began invoking the phrase ‘Y’all Street’ to position the Lone Star State as an alternative to Wall Street and Delaware’s corporate stronghold, Holmes said clients have been asking: “What’s going on with Dallas?”
Winston’s Position
Winston & Strawn made a splash in 2017, hiring 23 partners from eight Texas firms to launch its Dallas office with a target of 60 lawyers. Melsheimer and real estate lawyer Bryan Goolsby were named co-managing partners.
Nearly a decade later, Goolsby retired in February, the same month Melsheimer left for King & Spalding. But the firm’s new leadership insists the office has kept its footing.
Partners Brett Johnson and Jordan Klein, who spent last year “shadowing” Goolsby as part of a “succession plan,” now lead the office, Johnson said.
The firm hired six lateral hires in April, including former Sidley Austin partner Aimee Fagan in Dallas. The firm said it did not anticipate the pending combination with UK-based Taylor Wessing will impact leadership positions.
“The market for lateral talent is just white hot,” Klein said. “There’s no firm that’s immune to any departures. That’s just the world we live in.”
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