Firm Profiles
IN-DEPTH RESEARCH REPORT
on Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P.
- - Financial Information
- - Compensation
- - Billing Rates
- - Lateral Partner Moves
- - Pro bono
- - Key Contacts
Fulbright & Jaworski
- Designation: Houston
- Head Count: 790
- Gross Revenues: $585,500,000
- Revenue Per Lawyer: $740,000
- Profits Per Partner: $780,000
- Year Over Year Change: 6
As you might expect from a firm founded a century ago in Houston, Fulbright & Jaworski’s energy practice is one of its core strengths. So, too, is health care law. No surprise there, given the firm’s lengthy association with the city’s sprawling Texas Medical Center. But Fulbright is also home to a top–notch litigation group, which earned an honorable mention in The American Lawyer’s Litigation Department of the Year contest in both 2008 and 2010.
While Fulbright’s history in Texas runs deep, its reach extended beyond the state’s borders almost from the beginning. Just eight years after its 1919 founding, the firm opened a Washington, D.C., office, giving it ready access to the agencies overseeing trade and commerce. Expansion continued throughout the years, with the firm now counting 17 offices worldwide, both in long established markets like London and Hong Kong and emerging regions like Dubai and Riyadh. The Middle East has become a big focus for the firm in recent years, and it has leveraged its energy and international transactional experience to become one of the region’s key players in Islamic finance and project finance work.
While Fulbright’s revenues put it within the top 50 firms, by other metrics it routinely falls outside the top 100. It ranked 101st in profit per partner for 2010, and 125th on the Am Law Profitability Index that year.
While many other firms fared worse during the economic crisis, Fulbright did not emerge unscathed. Revenue in 2010 was down nearly 3 percent from the prior year, and the firm’s attorney head count of 843 marked a sizable decline from a peak of 936 in 2007.
Fulbright scored middle–of–the–road numbers for diversity in 2011, coming in eightieth of 194 firms on The American Lawyer’s annual survey (just under 14 percent of U.S. attorneys, and 7 percent of U.S. partners, are minorities).
On the pro bono front, the firm actively encourages participation by factoring in hours when calculating associate bonuses. Given Fulbright’s ranking in the top 20 percent of firms on The American Lawyer’s 2011 Pro Bono report—lawyers performed, on average, 88 hours per year of nonpaying work—the tactic seems to be working.
—Updated as of 1/1/12
Firm Rankings
| Survey | Rank | Year Over Year Change | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Am Law 100 | 54 | 6 | Gross revenue |
| Am Law 200 | 54 | 6 | Gross revenue |
| NLJ 250 | 37 | 4 | Lawyer head count |
| The A-List | NR | N/A | Overall excellence |
| Pro Bono Scorecard | 38 | 17 | Pro-bono commitment |
| Diversity Scorecard | 88 | 8 | Minority head count |
| Midlevel Associates Survey | NR | N/A | Job satisfaction |
| Summer Associates Survey | NR | N/A | Summer programs |
In the News
Wilmer, Wachtell Help Longtime Gene Client Clinch $13.6 Billion Merger
Brian Baxter : The Am Law Daily : April 15, 2013
A team of lawyers from Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr are advising Waltham, Massachusetts-based health care and laboratory equipment maker Thermo Fisher Scientific on its $13.6 billion acquisition of Life Technologies Corp., creating a genetic testing giant. Latham & Watkins and Cravath, Swaine & Moore are also working on the proposed transaction.
Ninth Circuit Revives Enron-Era Antitrust Claims
Scott Graham : The Recorder : April 10, 2013
In ruling against gas companies, Judge Carlos Bea said in this litigation, state law claims aren't pre-empted.
Firm Finance: Gross Revenue, Net Income and Profits Per Partner Down at Fulbright & Jaworski
Jeanne Graham : Texas Lawyer : April 10, 2013
Key numbers dropped at Fulbright & Jaworski, partly due to a reduced lawyer count and activities that didn't generate revenue, says Ken Stewart, chairman of the firm's executive committee.
INADMISSIBLE
: The National Law Journal : April 8, 2013
The elephant in the courtroom; feds chastised for FOIA holds; easy compliance for lobbyists; Hertling joins Covington; more senators for gay marriage; Holder pessimistic about Voting Rights Act; and a sinking suit in this week's column.
NFL Players' Union Runs Up Big Bills
Brian Baxter : The Am Law Daily : April 4, 2013
A close look at the legal fees accrued by the National Football League Players Association in its collective bargaining battle with owners in 2011.
The Score: Dewey's Football Bills, March Madness, and Opening Day
Brian Baxter : The Am Law Daily : April 3, 2013
In our latest look at sports and the law, The Am Law Daily does some spring cleaning by tracking down the legal fees accrued by the National Football League Players Association in its collective bargaining battle with owners in 2011; catching up with one of the NCAA's top outside litigators from Schiff Hardin; and looking at the lawyers staying busy for Major League Baseball and the New York Yankees.
K&L Gates Opens Wilmington Office With Potter Anderson Attorneys
Jeff Mordock : Delaware Law Weekly : April 3, 2013
Pittsburgh-based K&L Gates has entered the Delaware market with the opening of its newest office in Wilmington, tapping four former Potter Anderson & Corroon attorneys to establish the office, which will focus on alternative entities and transactions.
Animal Rights Groups on the Hook for Fulbright & Jaworski Attorney Fees
Zoe Tillman : The National Law Journal : April 2, 2013
After unsuccessfully suing the producer of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus over its treatment of elephants, the groups could owe millions of dollars to Fulbright. A federal judge granted Feld Entertainment's motion for the fees but put off a decision on the amount.
K&L Gates Opens Delaware Office
Jeff Mordock : The Legal Intelligencer : April 2, 2013
Pittsburgh-based K&L Gates has entered the Delaware market with the opening of its newest office in Wilmington, tapping four former Potter Anderson & Corroon attorneys to establish the office, which will focus on alternative entity and transactions.
Correction
: Texas Lawyer : April 1, 2013
- Adams and Reese
- Akerman Senterfitt
- Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
- Allen & Overy
- Arthur Cox
- Ashurst
- Baker & Hostetler
- Baker & McKenzie
- Bingham McCutchen
- Bracewell & Giuliani
- Bradley Arant Boult Cummings
- Brown Rudnick
- Buist Moore
- Burr & Forman
- Cahill Gordon & Reindel
- Carlton Fields
- Clayton Utz
- Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
- Clifford Chance
- Cooley
- Davis Polk & Wardwell
- Dewey & LeBoeuf
- Diamond McCarthy
- Dickinson Wright
- DLA Piper
- Dorsey & Whitney
- Dreier LLP
- Freehills
- Freshfields
- Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
- Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson
- Greenberg Traurig
- Gross McGinley
- Harris Beach
- Haynes and Boone
- Herbert Smith
- Herrick, Feinstein
- Hogan Lovells
- Howrey
- Hughes Hubbard & Reed
- Jenner & Block
- Jones Day
- K&L Gates
- Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman
- Kilpatrick Townsend
- Kirkland & Ellis
- Kutak Rock
- Lane Powell
- Latham & Watkins
- Linklaters
- Lowenstein Sandler
- Margolis Edelstein
- McCarter & English
- McDermott Will & Emery
- McKenna Long & Aldridge
- McKool Smith
- Minter Ellison
- Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo
- Moore & Van Allen
- Morrison & Foerster
- Moses & Singer
- Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough
- Nexsen Pruet
- Nixon Peabody
- Norris, McLaughlin & Marcus
- Norton Rose
- O?Melveny & Myers
- Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel
- Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,
- Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
- Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein
- Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker
- Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
- Perkins Coie
- Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pitman
- Potter Anderson & Corroon
- Proskauer Rose
- Pryor Cashman
- Reed Smith
- Richards, Layton & Finger
- Robinson & Cole
- Ropes & Gray
- Ruden McClosky
- Seyfarth Shaw
- Shea & Gould
- Shearman & Sterling
- Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton
- Shipman & Goodwin
- Simmons & Simmons
- Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
- Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young
- Stroock & Stroock & Lavan
- Sullivan & Cromwell
- Sullivan & Worcester
- Weil, Gotshal & Manges
- White & Case
- Wiley Rein
- Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr
- Winston & Strawn
- Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice
- Young, Conaway, Stargatt & Taylor
