“Legal Shock and Awe in Dallas”: Winston Partners Profiled in Dallas Business Journal

The Dallas Business Journal profiled Winston's Dallas partners in “Legal Shock and Awe in Dallas: Inside Winston & Strawn's Prominent Talent Haul,” published on June 23, 2017. In the article, the partners discuss, among other things, how the Dallas legal landscape is changing, their approach to growth, and how they were each recruited to open the firm's Dallas office.

Describing the firm as “methodically building a Dallas office of revered courtroom and transactional titans, igniting a seismic shift in the North Texas legal landscape,” the article identifies the bold move as “a type of economic Darwinism.” With 60 lawyers and counting, the Dallas group has already outgrown its new office space and is working to find new real estate.

In the article, Litigation Partner Steve Stodghill highlighted Texas’ hospitable business environment as a prime consideration for why Winston chose to commit to Dallas in such a serious way.

Dallas Managing Partner Bryan Goolsby spoke to Winston’s sharp focus on the quality of talent versus simple headcount. Tom Melsheimer, who also serves as managing partner for the Dallas office, stressed their commitment to ensuring that every lawyer joining Winston in Dallas goes through the same rigorous vetting as the original team. Bryan used a football analogy to sum up the firm’s aggressive yet highly strategic approach to growth in Texas: “[i]nternally, we’re running the no-huddle offense here, and we’re trying to get in as many plays as we can.”

The Dallas-based team is focused on winning high-level non-commodity work such as private equity and generally more complicated transactions; due to the dynamic nature of the Dallas business community, the city naturally generates that type of work.

“We’ve brought together a best-in-class group of founding partners across a variety of practice areas in two growing, vibrant cities—Dallas and Houston—where there are great opportunities," said Winston Chairman Tom Fitzgerald. "Now the task is to extend that accomplishment and this significant offering to all of the clients we serve throughout Texas and beyond.”

Read the full Dallas Business Journal profile here.