Meyers was joined by state Sen. Bryan Hughes<\/a>, R-Mineola, on the first of the event\u2019s two panels, both moderated by Texas Tribune Editor-In-Chief Matthew Watkins. The two legislators credited state laws with initiating a wave of companies moving their legal homes to Texas, spurring growth in the state\u2019s financial sector and drawing three major stock exchanges to the state in recent years.<\/p>\n State Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, answers questions as state Rep. Morgan Meyer, R-University Park, listens during The Texas Tribune\u2019s Y\u2019all Street event, held at the Dallas Regional Chamber in Dallas on March 24, 2026. Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n Key to that movement toward Texas was the creation of the Texas Business Court and the 15th Court of Appeals, specialized legal venues designed to handle business and commercial disputes, the lawmakers said. The new courts, paired with the Legislature\u2019s business-friendly overhaul of the Texas Business Organizations Code in 2025, have created a predictable business environment that will draw more corporations to the state, they added. <\/p>\n ExxonMobil\u2019s announcement earlier this month that it would reincorporate from New Jersey to Texas \u2014\u00a0pending approval from its shareholders \u2014 is proof that the Legislature\u2019s efforts are working, Meyer said. <\/p>\n \u201cHaving Exxon take that leap, we couldn\u2019t ask for a better commercial or a confirmation of the path we\u2019re going on in Texas is the correct path,\u201d Meyer said. <\/p>\n Coinbase, Space X and Tesla are other major U.S. companies that have reincorporated to Texas in recent years. <\/p>\n The second panel, made up of business advocates, echoed Meyer and Hughes\u2019 assessments. <\/p>\n Texans for Lawsuit Reform CEO Ryan Patrick said northeastern states are watching companies\u2019 departure to Texas with alarm: \u201cThe panic is starting to set in, and this was before Exxon.\u201d<\/p>\n Patrick was joined by Chris Babcock, president of the Alliance for Corporate Excellence, Brian Page, a managing director at JPMorgan Chase, and John Sepehri, counsel at Foley and Lardner, LLP and former general counsel for the Texas Secretary of State\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n Babcock said the current moment is the culmination of more than a decade of cooperation between the business community and a bipartisan group of legislators working to make the state more business friendly. <\/p>\n That, coupled with a changing political and business climate in states like Delaware \u2014 the longstanding home of most Fortune 500 companies due to its specialized business courts and friendly corporate laws \u2014 has created an opening that Texas is capitalizing on, Sepheri said. <\/p>\n \u201cHistorically, people looked to Delaware as a place that had built up a body of law developed over many years and felt like it was a place where there was a lot of knowledge about business disputes,\u201d Sepheri said. \u201cBut in recent years, there\u2019s been a change in the political culture there, and that has enabled activist shareholders and judges to really second guess the decisions of management, and not always in a way that is productive.\u201d<\/p>\n The panelists all pointed to a 2025 change in Texas\u2019 corporate law that requires shareholders to own at least a 3% stake in the company to be able to sue the board of directors, something they said prevents frivolous shareholder lawsuits that cost companies big legal fees to defend. <\/p>\n That provision was tested in a federal court last week, when a judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by a shareholder with a less than 1% stake in Southwest Airlines and ruled that the 3% threshold is constitutional. The shareholder was suing over the company\u2019s decision to end its \u201cbags fly free\u201d policy. <\/p>\n Ryan Patrick, CEO of Texans for Lawsuit Reform, answers a question as Chris Babcock, president of the Alliance for Corporate Excellence, looks on during The Texas Tribune\u2019s Y\u2019all Street event, moderated by Tribune Editor-in Chief Matthew Watkins and hosted at the Dallas Regional Chamber in Dallas on March 24, 2026. Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n Crucially, the state will need to prove that law is in the best interest of shareholders as well, Babcock said, something he hopes ExxonMobil\u2019s May 27 shareholder vote to incorporate in Texas will validate to the shareholders of other companies. <\/p>\n The members of both of Tuesday\u2019s panels said the momentum Texas has built will be difficult to stop. <\/p>\n Making needed tweaks to the new business courts and reworked corporate laws will be a priority in next year\u2019s legislative session to maintain the economy\u2019s upward trajectory, the legislators said, as well as continuing to invest in infrastructure like transportation, water and electricity to keep up with the state\u2019s growing population.<\/p>\n Disclosure: JPMorgan Chase and Texans for Lawsuit Reform have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune\u2019s journalism. Find a complete\u00a0list of them here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas\u2019 push to become the nation\u2019s capital for business is continuing to build momentum thanks to a strong…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[102,918,287,1564,27,29,293,28,36798],"class_list":{"0":"post-221684","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-dallas","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-politics","11":"tag-state-government","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-texas-headlines","14":"tag-texas-legislature","15":"tag-texas-news","16":"tag-the-texas-tribune"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"State](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324-Events-Yall-Street-Dallas-ST-06.jpg\")
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