Lawyer Pay
Energy Lawyers Lured by High Pay in Houston’s Booming Legal Market
Posted May 28, 2008, 07:48 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss
In the last two years, several national law firms have opened in Houston and lured lawyers from firms already established in the city.
The competition has created a “buyer’s market” for lawyers, particularly energy lawyers, the National Law Journal reports. ABAJournal.com noted last April that energy lawyers in Houston are in big demand and short supply.
Some leaping lawyers are getting three-year salary guarantees and promises of $1 million a year in exchange for achieving business expectations, the NLJ story says.
Peggy Heeg, a Houston partner at Fulbright & Jaworski, told the NLJ that the firm’s lawyers get calls from recruiters on a daily basis. "Law firms want to come here because we have a strong energy base plus the city is doing pretty well economically, and Houston is the gateway to the world's energy market," she said.
Law firms that have opened in Houston in the last three years include McDermott, Will & Emery; DLA Piper; Hunton & Williams; Morgan, Lewis & Bockius; Sutherland Asbill & Brennan; and Greenberg Traurig. Several legal recruiting firms have done the same.
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Posted by Carolyn Elefant - 4 months, 2 weeks, 1 day, 4 hours, 9 minutes ago
Energy law is generally in demand primarily because few lawyers find it all that interesting - though renewable energy has helped revive the field. Still, while energy law can be handled at large and small firms, it seems that the demand for energy lawyers resides primarily at larger firms and inhouse and more for transactional rather than regulatory lawyers. Firms may need to look for short term contract lawyers to fill the need for energy positions if not enough junior lawyers are interested.