Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Winston & Strawn have both added to their footprints in Texas this week, simultaneously announcing new offices in Houston and Dallas respectively.
Gibson Dunn confirmed yesterday (6 February) that it had opened a new Houston office with eight partners, while Winston & Strawn has taken on 23 new partners from eight different firms and has launched an office in Dallas.
Among Winston’s new hires are Norton Rose Fulbright’s head of US business law, Tom Hughes; six partners from Fish & Richardson, including one made up from of counsel; seven from Dallas firm Locke Lord; three from Jones Day; and one each from Greenberg Traurig, Squire Patton Boggs, K&L Gates and Miller, Egan, Molter & Nelson. The Dallas office will be led by managing partners Bryan Goolsby, who is already with the firm, and Thomas Melsheimer, who joins from Fish & Richardson.
Winston has also picked up two real estate partners, Douglas Yeager and Jeffrey Smith, who will join the firm’s existing Houston office from Locke Lord.
Co-chariman Jeffrey Kessler said: ‘The firm’s ability to complete large lateral acquisitions within a short period of time, attracting prestigious attorneys from different law firms, highlights our commitment to strategic growth and integration within key practice areas and markets.’
Gibson Dunn, meanwhile, is yet to confirm which eight partners will be joining the new office in Houston but said the team would have ‘the full range of energy transactional experience’, covering public and private M&A, asset acquisitions and divestitures, and joint ventures; debt and equity capital markets; finance and restructuring; tax and regulatory matters.
The firm already has a presence in Dallas and office head Rob Walters said: ‘Our new Houston office will be initially focused on energy transactions, but we expect the office to work closely with the Dallas office and other lawyers throughout our firm to attract restructuring, litigation, appellate and regulatory opportunities.’
2016 saw both Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe and UK firm Holman Fenwick Willan (HFW) opening in Houston, 13 partners joined Orrick for the launch including McDermott Will & Emery’s global head of energy Blake Winburne, and DLA Piper’s co-chair of global and US patent litigation Claudia Frost. In November HFW confirmed it had taken over eight-partner Houston litigation firm Legge, Farrow, Kimmitt, McGrath & Brown, giving it a US presence.
madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk
