Texas Talent War Forces Law Firms Into ‘Hand-to-Hand Combat’

Competitors for legal talent in the hot Texas market are finding they must aggressively promote custom compensation packages and versatile energy and technology practices to land the most desirable candidates.

Law firms of all sizes face challenges to recruit partners and junior associates alike: there are only so many attorneys in Austin’s small legal market; Fortune 500 companies are paying top-dollar rates to Dallas lawyers; and it’s harder to jar partners loose from current firms in the state’s energy hub of Houston. An influx of companies and subsequent rise of intellectual property, data center, nuclear energy, and space work is ratcheting up demand at the same time.

“We are in a perennial war for talent,” said Danny David, the Houston-based managing partner of Baker Botts, one of the state’s oldest large law firms. “It’s about creating an environment where we both attract new talent and also retain the talent we have.”

Money still talks in the Lone Star State, but even firms with the deepest pockets also tout opportunities to team up with top-notch corporate clients and have some semblance of work-life balance to woo lawyers. Those farther down the food chain target lawyers with entrepreneurial opportunities to grow their practices and flexibility about where they do their jobs.

Bert Greene, managing partner of Duane Morris’ Austin office, says recruiting there has been like “hand-to-hand combat.” He cites the rising demand for junior intellectual property associates needed in the tech hub housing Tesla, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Oracle, and myriad startups.

“It’s not easy, but it is certainly possible if you put in the work,” Greene said. “We have to sell our platform and our culture” such as collaborations beyond Texas and consideration of alternative fee structures as “a means of getting new work in the door.”

‘Record Money’

Many Big Law firms have by now established themselves in Texas, said Timothy Regan, founder of ELR Legal Search in Houston, but the price tag for talent is going up.

Guarantees of $10 to $15 million were not enough for Paul Weiss to lure partners from rivals in a failed effort to open a Houston office in 2024.

“Paul Weiss was banging on the door and still is trying to get a few people to break free,” Regan said. “The pay packages have gone up already. Kirkland came in, Latham came in, Gibson has come in. They’re paying record money.”

Sullivan & Cromwell is preparing to open in Houston, hiring a junior partner from Kirkland & Ellis. The firm may also be moving lawyers based elsewhere to Texas.

The lateral recruiting market in the nation’s energy capital is “tight” because lawyers are “getting paid well, working hard but not too hard, and getting the type of work that they want,” Regan said.

Wall Street stalwart Simpson Thacher & Bartlett opened its Houston office in 2011. Highly qualified corporate lawyers are always needed because there’s “so much deal flow” in the energy heartland, said the office’s co-managing partner Breen Haire.

The mix of its global practices and “highly competitive compensation” contribute to making Simpson Thacher “very successful in the Texas recruiting market,” Haire said. The firm said it had a record 35 summer associates in Houston last year and crossed the 100-attorney mark there.

Noelle Reed, managing partner for Skadden Arps Meagher & Flom’s Houston office, said the firm more than doubled its local headcount to 55 over the past three years. It’s planning to hire five more lawyers this month, she said, as the team moves to roomier digs in the Texas Tower.

“One of the reasons we haven’t been quite as challenged in terms of attracting lateral partner talent is because we’ve been here for 30 years,” said Reed. “We have a long, long track record.”

Homegrown firms also benefit from a longstanding presence. Baker Botts, a global firm founded in Houston in 1840, said it hired four Texas lateral partners last year. The firm brought in 30 lateral partners globally in 2025, doubling last year’s figure and setting a firm record, said David.

David attributed the firm’s hiring success to its “ultra-collaboration” and offering “premium legal work” in energy and technology. He also touted the firm’s longstanding relationships including at local law schools, which increases the firm’s visibility and leverages referrals.

“Those are a fraction of the benefits you get when you have a 185-year head start,” David said.

Baker Botts hired 39 attorneys in Texas last year, with 311 lawyers total in its home state.

Skadden is a good model, according to Regan, the legal recruiter. The firm has “cream of the crop clients” in Houston, New York, and London paying the same top rates. It’s developed a local reputation for not being like Kirkland & Ellis, where “you burn and you churn,” he said. “And I’m not taking anything away from Kirkland,” he added, “because when you go to Kirkland, you get what you signed up for.”

Skadden’s “associates are working hard, but they’re going home to sleep at night,” he said.

Mid-Sized Firms Grow

Philadelphia-founded Duane Morris is among the country’s 100 largest firms, but about a quarter of size of Simpson Thacher in terms of gross revenue. The firm opened in Houston in 1999 and branched out to Austin, Dallas, and Fort Worth over the last decade. It offers ample training and helps lateral partners expand their practices, said Randy Gordon, the managing partner of the Dallas-Fort Worth area offices.

“In terms of the highest level of compensation right out of the box, we probably aren’t competitive in all cases,” Gordon said. Green, his colleague, added: “This firm sort of is comfortable in its own skin, and we are not looking to overpay for folks beyond what we think they would ultimately be able to contribute to the bottom line. And so the lateral recruiting process here is extensive.”

Duane Morris has successfully recruited from Texas A&M University School of Law, where Gordon sits on the faculty and has been able to “amplify” the firm’s message. The firm now has 52 lawyers statewide, up from 29 in 2019.

Dykema Gossett, a century-old firm with Midwestern roots, opened its Dallas office in 2007. The firm stretched into Austin and San Antonio in 2013 and 2015 respectively, with one-third of its workforce now located in Texas.

Dykema offers “realistic” billing requirements and “flexibility” for remote work, said Isaac Villarreal, managing member of the Houston office. The firm lures new hires with “cross-servicing” that gives them shared credit on existing work and involves extra year-end compensation. New hires get opportunities to argue in Houston’s federal bankruptcy court, as well as the brand new Texas Business Court.

Dykema added seven attorneys to the Houston office last year, roughly doubling headcount. The firm said it now has 134 lawyers statewide, up from 114 in 2019.