“Keep in mind that it was only 10 years ago that national firms found it almost impossible to even survive in Texas. “That is a real watershed event,” said Rob Walters, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher’s Dallas partner-in-charge, referring to Kirkland claiming the No. The firm has been on the fast track ever since, posting its sixth consecutive year of double-digit increases in revenues and headcount in 2020.Įven competitors agree Kirkland’s Texas success has been remarkable. Kirkland’s Texas operations began modestly enough - 14 lawyers producing revenue of $20 million in 2014. We may be having the best start to a year that we have had since we opened the office in 2014.” “So far this year, we've been absolutely slammed with client projects. “We think there is still a lot more growth ahead for our firm in Texas,” Calder said. Kirkland now has more offices in Texas than it does any other state. The firm opened a third Texas office last month, adding Austin to its Houston and Dallas operations. Kirkland partner Andy Calder, who opened the firm’s first Texas office, in Houston, in April 2014, called 2020 an extraordinary year but boldly stated the firm hadn’t reached its peak in Texas. On : Has the time come for business-only courts in Texas? Revenues-per-lawyer for the firm’s Texas attorneys rose 10.3 percent to $1.82 million in 2020 from $1.65 million the year earlier. Its lawyer headcount increased sharply, to 290 last year from 236 in 2019, a gain of 22.9 percent. Other measures reinforce the story of Kirkland’s success in Texas. Thanks to lucrative practices in corporate restructuring and private equity M&A, Kirkland posted an astonishing one-year gain of $138 million, standing alone in 2020 as the only corporate law firm with revenues exceeding a half billion dollars in Texas. New research by The Texas Lawbook shows that revenues generated by Kirkland’s Texas lawyers jumped to $528 million in 2020 from $389 million in 2019, a 35.5 percent increase.

Perfect Score by A.M. Ellis