The Texas Legal Market Leaderboard
3 minute read • Updated 8 July 2026
In our US state leaderboard series, we look at the law firms with largest partner headcount and strongest recent headcount growth in each US state. Here are the firms that have lead the way in the Texas legal market over the last 12 months.
Texas Is One Of The Fastest Growing States
Texas' partner headcount rose
+3% over the last 12 months, putting it second only to New York (+4.2%) among the major US legal markets. It came in just above Florida (+3.1%) and well clear of California, Washington, DC (+2%) and Illinois (+1.6%).
Ranked: Which Law Firms are Leading Growth in Texas?
United States, Texas, Partners, Firms with >20 Partners, May 2025 - May 2026
Partners with multiple locations have been evenly distributed across each
Corporate Drove Texas Practice Growth As Intellectual Property Declined
Corporate posted the strongest practice growth over the year at +6%, ahead of Insurance (+5%) and Tax (+3%). Intellectual Property ran against the trend as the only major practice to shrink, falling -5%.
New York Was Texas' Busiest Partner Exchange In Both Directions
Over the past year, no state exchanged more partners with Texas than New York, in either direction. Six partners relocated from New York into Texas, around 29% of all arrivals, and New York was also where departing Texas partners most often headed (18% of all exits).
California and Illinois were the next common departure destinations, each pulling
5 partners (15% of all exits) while sending only
2 the other way. Overall, more partners left Texas than moved into it.
Energy Dominated The Leading Firms' Client Work, With Kirkland & Ellis Handling The Bulk Of It
Energy was the single largest source of client work for the top 10 firms, (24.1% of publicly disclosed matters), ahead of financial services (8.6%) and investment funds (7.6%).
That pattern mirrors the Texas economy. The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas ranks energy and mining among the state's dominant industry clusters, alongside financial services and business services.
Kirkland & Ellis was behind a large share of this activity, handling
24% of all public matters among the top 10 Texas firms.
Note on methodology
Source: Publicly-available data tracked by Pirical Legal Professionals
Location: Texas, United States
Timeframe:
May 2025 - May 2026
Score weightings:
- 50% headcount growth
- 50% current headcount size
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