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10 Years of Kirkland: A Bold Vision Transformed Texas Corporate Law and Generated Record Revenues and Profits - Ten years ago this week, Kirkland & Ellis upended the Texas corporate law market but no one knew it at the time. Using cramped rental office space shared with a divorce lawyer above Lone Star Taco in downtown Houston, Andy Calder, William Benitez, John Pitts, Rhett Van Syoc and Kyle Watson officially launched Kirkland's Houston office on April 22, 2014. Former colleagues called them crazy and predicted the Kirkland model would never work in a genteel environment such as Texas. But by the end of the first day, the Kirkland team in Houston had 30 private equity deals to handle.
“From Day 1, we had more deals than we had people," Benitez said.
A decade later, Kirkland has 414 lawyers in Houston, Dallas and Austin. The firm last year made $200 million more than any law firm in Texas has ever made in one year. Through the eyes of those who were there at the beginning, this is the story of how Kirkland became the highest revenue generating and most profitable corporate law firm in Texas history. And firm leaders are promising they are not finished growing. April 23, 2024Mark Curriden
Top Stories
Top Stories
Wrongful Death Case Against Walker Engineering Goes to Dallas Jury - Charla Aldous and other lawyers for the family of an electrician killed in a construction accident at a Frito-Lay facility in Irving are asking for more than $100 million. Defense lawyers say $6 million is more appropriate. April 23, 2024Bruce Tomaso & Krista Torralva
CDT Roundup: 19 Deals, 11 Firms, 147 Lawyers, $16B - In addition to its usual fare, the CDT Roundup this week includes a quarterly accounting of the volume and value of deals Texas firms reported to us during the first 13 weeks of 2024. It turns out we've logged a lot of lawyer names. We have that number, too. April 23, 2024Claire Poole
Litigation Roundup: SEC Sued Over Trading Surveillance - In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a man who alleges he was shorted two ounces of beer by Cinemark files a class action lawsuit against the movie chain, an East Texas jury hits Samsung with a $142 million patent infringement verdict in a damages redo trial, and a new SEC trading surveillance initiative draws a constitutional challenge. April 22, 2024Michelle Casady
Testimony Ends in ExxonMobil’s $1.9B Lawsuit Against IRS - In lieu of closing arguments, the company and the U.S. government agreed to file post-trial briefs with Chief Judge David C. Godbey of the Northern District of Texas, who presided over the weeklong tax dispute trial stemming from ExxonMobil’s natural-gas mining venture with Qatar. April 19, 2024Bruce Tomaso
Locke Lord in Merger Talks with Troutman Pepper - Both sides are confirming that Texas-based Locke Lord is in merger talks with the Georgia-founded firm. Texas Lawbook 50 research shows Locke Lord's revenues in Texas stayed flat in 2023, but profits per partner increased. An analyst says he sees growth in depth and breadth for both sides in the proposed merger. This isn't the first time Troutman has tried to break into Texas. April 18, 2024Allen Pusey
SCOTUS Revives Texas Landowners’ Takings Suit Against State - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously revived the lawsuit that the U.S. Fifth Court of Appeals had dismissed with a one-paragraph ruling. Daniel Charest of Burns Charest, who is the lead trial attorney for the landowners, was confident about the outcome of the case when he was present for oral arguments in January and heard what he viewed as an important admission from Texas Solicitor General Aaron L. Nielson, who was arguing for the state. April 16, 2024Michelle Casady
CDT Roundup: 13 Deals, 9 Firms, 76 Lawyers, $9B - The Roundup swings its spotlight in a different direction this week to focus on the fund formation world and a young lawyer to be reckoned with, Simpson Thacher partner Linda Tieh. The Harvard-trained lawyer earned her undergrad degree from the University of Texas, holds bar cards in New York and Texas and finds herself front and center in some of the largest and most complicated deals we cover, including our largest transaction this week. Claire Poole has more on Tieh's remarkable resume of transactions, as well as the usual summary of last week's deals. April 16, 2024Claire Poole
Centerpiece
GC Tabitha Bailey is ‘A Force to Reckon with for Many Years to Come’ - For 18 months — from the last quarter of 2022 through the first quarter of 2024 — Tabitha Bailey faced trials and tribulations that few young corporate general counsel have encountered. As GC of Avantax, Bailey played a critical role in the $720 million sale of its TaxAct software business in October 2022. Days later, the Richardson-based wealth management firm became embroiled in an alleged data breach crisis that led to congressional inquiries, state and federal investigations, four class action lawsuits and hundreds of individual arbitrations, which required extensive communication with investors and the private equity fund buyer that was making noises about terminating the deal.
The excitement for Bailey was only starting. In the months that followed, Avantax faced its third activist challenge and proxy contest in three years, executed a $250 million tender offer, overhauled its executive compensation plan and successfully completed a $1.2 billion take-private merger with competitor Cetera. Earlier this year, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Lawbook honored Bailey with the 2023 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for General Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department. This is her story. April 22, 2024Mark Curriden
The excitement for Bailey was only starting. In the months that followed, Avantax faced its third activist challenge and proxy contest in three years, executed a $250 million tender offer, overhauled its executive compensation plan and successfully completed a $1.2 billion take-private merger with competitor Cetera. Earlier this year, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Lawbook honored Bailey with the 2023 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for General Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department. This is her story. April 22, 2024Mark Curriden
Corporate Law Firms Hired Record Number of Texas First-Years in 2023 - The competition for first-year associates hit a fevered pitch 2023 as corporate law firms in Texas hired 503 brand new lawyers last fall to join their Texas offices — a 15 percent jump over 2022, according to exclusive new Texas Lawbook 50 data. Twenty-six law firms operating in Texas increased their hiring of new law school graduates in 2023, while 15 firms reduced their first-year hires and nine firms hired the same number in 2023 as they did the prior year. April 19, 2024Mark Curriden
Expert Voices
Not Serious, Substantial, or Similar: SCOTUS Holds Title VII Transfer Claimant Must Show Only ‘Some Harm’ - The ruling is likely to result in more discrimination cases about job changes surviving defense challenges and moving forward to trial. April 18, 2024Jennifer Trulock & Lauren Green
SCOTUS Narrows Application of Exchange Act Rule 10b-5(b) to Half-Truths - Until last week, federal circuit courts were split on whether so-called “pure omissions” could support securities fraud claims under Securities Exchange Act Rule 10b-5(b). For those not fluent in the application and enforcement of Rule 10b-5(b), its text does not exactly roll off the tongue and its concepts can be tricky to apply in practice. April 18, 2024Jessica Magee, Brandon L. King & Hunter W. Bezner
Stories You Might’ve Missed
- Brister, Gunn, Matthews Among Applicants for TX Business Court and 15th Court of Appeals - Twenty lawyers, including several former Texas appellate and trial court judges, have applied for appointment to the newly created business courts and intermediate appellate court. They include prominent figures such as former Texas Supreme Court Justice Scott Brister, appellate specialist David Gunn and Houston MDL Judge Sylvia Matthews. Five candidates from the Texas AG’s office also are seeking positions. Gov. Abbott will appoint the judges and justices, who begin hearing cases in September. The Texas Lawbook obtained the applications through a public information request. February 1, 2024Janet Elliott