Vinson & Elkins leads all law firms in M&A energy work in Texas, even as much bigger global rivals gain footholds in the state.<\/p>\n
The firm guided $30.3 billion worth of energy deals through the third quarter, edging out top rivals Kirkland & Ellis and White & Case in Texas, Bloomberg data shows. For example, it is helping Sunoco LP acquire Canadian fuel distributor Parkland Corp. for $9.1 billion, and Plains All American Pipeline LP to buy the gas liquids business of Keyera Corp. for $3.75 billion. <\/p>\n
\u201cEnergy is never something we\u2019re going to move away from,\u201d John Grand, who co-leads M&A and private equity for the firm in Dallas, said in an interview. \u201cGiven that it\u2019s such a large part of the economy in Texas, a large percentage of our partners will dabble in it in different ways.\u201d <\/p>\n
The data shows that the firm founded in Houston when Woodrow Wilson was president is holding its own\u2014at least for now\u2014against major interlopers with deeper pockets who got their starts in cities such as New York and Chicago. Texas has been a magnet this century for international law firms hungry to grab transactions in the booming energy business, and the growth plan for artificial intelligence data centers has intensified the competition.<\/p>\n
Vinson & Elkins is counting on its roster of clients built over decades to stay ahead of the pack, said Theodore Borrego, an attorney and professor at the University of Houston Law Center. \u201cBut we\u2019re seeing outside firms also starting to compete,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Kirkland did $29.9 billion worth of energy deals in the first three quarters in the state, just $200 million behind V&E, followed by White & Case at $28.5 billion, Sullivan & Cromwell at $23.7 billion, and Milbank at $22 billion, Bloomberg data shows.<\/p>\n
Among those rivals\u2019 big deals, Kirkland in April advised TG Natural Resources when it acquired a 70% interest in the East Texas gas assets of a Chevron Corp. subsidiary for $525 million. In August, White & Case advised NRG Energy Inc. on its loan agreement with the Public Utility Commission of Texas and initial funding for two natural gas units.<\/p>\n
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The Chevron Corp. headquarters, center, in Houston on Oct. 8, 2025.<\/p>\n
Photographer: Mark Felix\/Bloomberg<\/p>\n
For more than a century, Vinson & Elkins, Baker Botts, and Fulbright & Jaworski\u2014the Houston-founded firms known locally as \u201cThe Big Three”\u2014built reputations as energy dealmakers in Texas. V&E\u2019s energy ties to the state go back to 1920, when A.E. Humphreys, its first major energy client, struck oil near Mexia, Texas. <\/p>\n
A century later, Houston\u2019s legal market is competing globally. V&E partners credit Latham & Watkins\u2019 opening of a Houston office in 2010 as the first national firm to penetrate the Texas legal market. Jaworski merged with Norton Rose in 2013, and Kirkland & Ellis arrived in the state in 2014 with the launch of a Houston office. <\/p>\n
V&E held its own against the onslaught by working with alternative asset managers such as Apollo, Blackstone and TPG, which started making significant investments in traditional energy in the 2000s, said Grand. The firm invested earlier than its competitors \u201cin places where a lot of the deal flow was going to come from, in terms of private capital clients, and kind of building up that practice,\u201d said Lande Spottswood, a partner leading M&A and capital markets for V&E in Houston.<\/p>\n
The firm is carving a place for itself in the energy M&A pecking order globally. Kirkland & Ellis topped global energy transactions worth about $48 billion in the first three quarters of this year, followed by Latham ($41.8 billion), Norton Rose ($38.7 billion), and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett ($35.7 billion), according to Bloomberg data. V&E advised on international energy transactions worth nearly $34.5 billion during the same time period. <\/p>\n
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