Vinson & Elkins Lawyers Return to Office in New Houston Tower

Vinson & Elkins is going back to the office on Tuesday—and the firm’s Houston lawyers will be heading to a brand new location.

The U.S. firm with more than 650 lawyers will have its attorneys spend at least three days a week in the office, adopting a hybrid policy adopted by many firms. More than 40% of those attorneys are based in Houston, according to the firm.

The policy launch coincides with its new office opening in Houston’s Texas Tower, where Vinson & Elkins is renting 208,000 square feet over the top seven floors. The lease runs for 16 years, according to the developers of the tower, which also houses law firms DLA Piper and McGuireWoods.

“The return to office and the return to the courthouses are not coincidental,” Hilary Preston, a vice chair of Vinson & Elkins, said in an interview. “For those of us who do trial work, judges are demanding we show up in person.”

The firm’s leaders said they see spending time with colleagues in an office or other in-person opportunities as vital to the mentoring and development of junior lawyers’ careers. But they are willing to remain flexible as the competition for associates heats up across the industry.

Vinson & Elkins is likely to recruit and offer positions to lawyers who work in cities where the firm doesn’t have a permanent office, chair Keith Fullenweider said. The firm will make an effort to provide in-person opportunities for those lawyers also, he said.

“We are not a culture that thinks it doesn’t matter to get together in person,” Fullenweider said. He said firms that take that view “are not being straightforward with their young lawyers about what it takes to develop.”