Firm Profiles

The first Texas law firm to see average partner compensation pass $1 million (a feat accomplished in 2005), Vinson & Elkins is one of the country’s top firms for oil and gas work. It also boasts a first–tier litigation group—it picked up an honorable mention in The American Lawyer’s 2010 Litigation Department of the Year competition—and does substantial transactional work, ranking as the number one issuer’s counsel for U.S. IPOs (by volume) on our 2011 Corporate Scorecard, and the number one issuer’s counsel for equities (by volume). The firm’s M&A lawyers recently represented Continental Airlines, Inc., in its $3.2 billion merger with United Air Lines, Inc., and also counseled Southwest Airlines Co. in its $3.4 billion acquisition of AirTran Holdings, Inc.

Vinson was among the first firms to see significant postrecession recovery, with revenues rising more than 7 percent in 2010, and profits per partner increasing nearly 6 percent, to almost $1.4 million. The firm’s 15 offices dot the country (from New York and Washington, D.C., to Austin and Palo Alto) and the world (including Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo, and London), though it has a particularly strong presence in the energy–rich Middle East, with outposts in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and (since 2011) Riyadh. Recently Vinson has been making a push into clean energy, as well, working on hydrogen, solar, and other renewable energy projects.

While the firm’s Web site describes its history and expansion, one thing visitors are unlikely to find is a recounting of Vinson’s role as legal adviser to Enron Corp., the Houston–based energy company whose misdeeds, and downfall, triggered congressional investigations and reforms. In 2007 the firm agreed to pay $30 million to avoid litigation claiming that its actions had contributed to the company’s collapse. Overall, however, Vinson fared far better than other businesses caught up in the Enron scandal, such as the late accounting firm Arthur Andersen.

Vinson has also fared well with its own lawyers, ranking eighteenth of 126 firms on The American Lawyer’s 2011 Midlevel Associates Survey. That, however, is the high point of the firm’s noneconomic metrics: Both diversity (ninety–sixth of 194 firms in our 2011 scorecard, with minorities comprising just over 4 percent of U.S. partner ranks) and pro bono (125th of 200 firms on The American Lawyer’s 2011 Pro Bono Report) are still works in progress.

—Updated as of 1/1/12