Everything is bigger in Texas: The Lone Star State's Legal Gold Rush 🇺🇸

In the first five months of 2026, Paul Weiss opened a Houston office. Clifford Chance named their global head of infrastructure disputes there. Sullivan & Cromwell launched a digital infrastructure practice in the city. Gibson Dunn welcomed back from Weil the Chambers ranked Omar Samji. Eversheds Sutherland ushered in five energy lawyers within 15 months, with 3 of those in a single announcement at the end of March. Skadden has shifted premises to Texas Tower to accommodate a team triple the size it was 3 years ago.

The Texas Tower

Not so many years ago, a lawyer looking to practise in Texas energy would have seen a very different landscape, with fewer international firms present, and native firms such as Baker Botts and Vinson Elkins advising on the lion’s share of energy work.

However, the list of firms now expanding in the Lone Star State includes not only the household names above, but also Latham & Watkins, Dechert, and a Paul Hastings presence that grew from 30 to nearly 100 Texas lawyers over 18 months. The firms already there are busier than they have been in a decade. New arrivals are competing ferociously for the same talent, with US lateral hiring at a historic high in 2025.

The energy related industries creating this cornucopia of legal work show no sign of slowing their growth. The legal market is one of the most useful lenses into the energy scene; law firms are rushing to Austin, Houston, and Dallas to chase billions of dollars of legal work that is being generated in a state where the grid is under unprecedented strain, the regulatory framework is being rewritten, and capital is arriving faster than the current legal market can absorb it.

To set the scene as to why some practise areas are growing:

• Oil and Gas: The bread and butter of Houston's legal market is still generating the same work it always has. Sustained high prices have led to a thriving industry that keeps increasing in scale to meet demand. Growth in:Energy transactions, Oil&Gas litigation, Project finance

• Renewables: Wind, solar, nuclear, and battery storage projects are advancing across the state at the speed of light, driven by developers racing to lock in federal tax incentives before the political window closes. Texas is expected to account for 40% of all new US solar capacity additions in 2026, according to the EIA. Growth in: Construction, Tax, Environment

• AI: Keeping up with the demand for AI infrastructure and data centres means that the state, with the unique advantages of ERCOT, has become a hotbed for global technology investment, with technology companies committing hundreds of billions of dollars (e.g the $500 billion Stargate Project) to facilities that need land, power, regulatory clearance and contracts before servers go live. Growth in: Real Estate, Technology, Infrastructure

• Texas Senate Bill 6: Signed in 2025, this overhauled the rules deciding how large energy users connect to the grid. PUCT (Public Utility Commission of Texas) is currently running five separate rulemaking processes to implement it, yet the legal work it is generating did not exist two years ago. Growth in: Regulatory, Public law, Administrative

• Texas Stock Exchange: TXSE, which is expected to start trading in Q4 2026, brings major Wall Street investment from the likes of Goldman Sachs and BlackRock into Y’all Street in Dallas. Growth in: Capital markets, Securities, Private equity

Y'all Street

• Company Relocation: Tesla, SpaceX, Coinbase, and ExxonMobil are just a few of the major companies who have reincorporated into the state recently, with Dell announcing its plans to do the same earlier this month. Changes to corporate law in Texas have made the state a more attractive option than the previous status quo in Delaware. Growth in: Corporate governance, Mergers & acquisitions, Commercial litigation

• The Texas Business Courts: established in 2024 specifically to handle complex commercial disputes, as their caseload grows, firms will be competing to get their share of the action. Growth in: Appellate, Restructuring & insolvency, Intellectual property

Clifford Chance serves as a prime example of the speed at which firms are scrambling to expand in the state. When it opened in Houston in June 2023, it was the first Magic Circle firm to open an office in the city, arriving with 10 partners, of which 7 were lateral hires from US competitors. 3 years later the office is 40 lawyers strong, has spent a reported $20 million to make themselves at home in Texas Tower, and Clifford Chance’s global head of infrastructure disputes is not in New York, nor London, but in Houston.

The timeline below shows not only Clifford Chance’s rapid growth in terms of headcount, but also the significant hires they have made and their respective practise areas. Each hire has extended the office into a new practice area, including capabilities in M&A, environmental law, tax, and project finance. This is significant because the firm is now positioned to advise infrastructure clients on the full lifecycle of a project and gives useful insights as to the intentions of the firm towards the type of work they want the Houston office to be involved with.

Date	Milestone	Practice area added
Jun 2023	Office launches — first Magic Circle firm in Houston 10 partners from day one: seven lateral hires incl. Castelan and Lavelle from Latham & Watkins, plus three internal relocations. Source: cliffordchance.com · Annual results, Jul 2023; Bloomberg Law, 5 Jun 2023	Energy M&A · Capital markets
Jul 2023	Devika Kornbacher named founding managing partner Co-head of CC’s global Tech Group; appointed to lead the new Houston office. Source: cliffordchance.com · Press release, 11 Jul 2023	Leadership
Oct 2023	Cephas Sekhar joins; team reaches 11 partners Corporate M&A partner with cross-sector deal experience across energy transition, technology and healthcare. Source: cliffordchance.com · Press release, Oct 2023	Corporate M&A
Feb 2024	Ty’Meka Reeves-Sobers joins; environmental practice added Environmental regulatory, transactional and ESG advisory capability added to the Houston team. Source: cliffordchance.com · Press release, Feb 2024	Environment · ESG
Apr 2024	Todd Lowther joins; team tops 28 attorneys Tax partner with energy-sector tax structuring and private equity fund expertise. Source: cliffordchance.com · Press release, Apr 2024	Tax
Oct 2024	$20m build-out filed at Texas Tower 60,400 sq ft across two floors at 845 Texas Street. Completion expected summer 2025. Source: Texas Dept. of Licensing & Regulation · State filing, Oct 2024 (TABS2025003930)	Physical expansion
May 2025	Victoria B. Salem joins from in-house at Cheniere Energy Joins the Global Financial Markets team, bringing direct LNG industry experience from the client side. Source: cliffordchance.com · Press release, May 2025	Project finance · Energy financing
Mar 2026	Alexandra Wilde named managing partner; 40+ attorneys Corporate M&A partner who joined at launch steps up as the office surpasses 40 attorneys. Source: cliffordchance.com · Press release, 10 Mar 2026	Leadership · Scale milestone
May 2026	J. Laurens Wilkes named global head of infrastructure disputes From Winston & Strawn (prev. 16 years at Jones Day). Caitlin Gernert joins simultaneously. Global disputes practice now anchored in Houston. Source: Bloomberg Law · Texas Lawbook, 5 May 2026	Infrastructure disputes · Arbitration

What the data and the hiring activity both point to is a market that is exposed to multiple trends and sectors. Energy, renewables, AI infrastructure, new legislation, corporate relocations: all of the forces creating legal work into Texas are diverse enough that stagnation in one area is unlikely to derail the whole thing. That's what separates this from previous cycles, and it's what has brought major players into the state in such a short period.

The firms expanding within and into Texas aren't doing so timidly; if anything they're hiring aggressively, but the pool of lawyers with the right experience isn't growing as fast as the demand for them. It’s created real opportunity for candidates who might not have considered a move before now.

At HIA Legal, we've been tracking the Texas legal market closely and we have built relationships across the firms driving it- not only with the household names making their Texas debut, but also the established outfits looking to double in size. If you're curious about what's available or just want an honest picture of where the opportunities are, we're happy to talk.

Author: Hugo Alexander 29th May 2026

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hugoalexander/