Seven of the total eleven are major law firms, with three opening their own offices and four merging with local firms. Even though the energy market has been in difficulties for much of the year, restructuring and distressed M&A work has come along with slumping oil prices.

California

Leaders also say that Texas’ economy is diverse and has many multinational corporations outside the energy sector. It was the top state for job growth in 2014 according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, with 457,900 new jobs created. Kent Zimmermann, a law firm consultant with the Zeughauser Group said: ‘When managing partners in large firms think about where in the world they want to grow geographically, Texas is near or at the top of the list of many firms.’ In theory, the California market is still more active, as law firms opened 18 new locations there in the last 12 months. But there appears to be less net growth, as 17 locations were also closed during that period. Source: Bloomberg Business of Law