Dallas

Weil has had a longer presence in the Texas market than almost all of its peer firms. Opened in 1987, the Dallas office focuses on complex private equity, M&A, banking and finance, restructuring, tax, and litigation matters.

Approximately 50 attorneys are currently based in the Dallas office.

Our Practice

Weil’s Dallas office brings the best of Wall Street quality legal services to Dallas and the Southwest in five primary practice areas: Private Equity and Mergers & Acquisitions, Banking and Finance, Restructuring, Tax, and Complex Commercial Litigation. In addition, the Dallas office serves as an integrated gateway to our worldwide network of offices, providing our clients with access to a global platform of legal expertise.

The transactional lawyers in our Dallas office are ranked among the very best in the world for their work on M&A and Private Equity deals, and have led some of the largest and most complex transactions handled by Weil. We advise a significant number of large market cap public companies as well as private equity firms based in the region and the portfolio companies owned and controlled by private equity owners. We are highly skilled advisors in connection with the relationships and issues that arise between ownership and management within the private equity industry. Our Finance and Tax lawyers work seamlessly with our M&A and private equity teams on transactions, both in Texas and nationally.

Weil also has litigators in Dallas who advise clients on a range of high-profile matters. Our Dallas litigation team advises clients based in and out of Texas on a range of disputes in Texas and other state and federal courts, before arbitration panels, and in mediations. Mirroring the capabilities of the Firm’s broader, 350-attorney Litigation Department, our Dallas litigators handle all aspects of our clients’ litigation engagements, including pre-dispute counseling, filing complaints and engaging in motion practice, discovery, trial, and appeals. We focus on high-stakes financial disputes, antitrust litigation, investigations, large-scale class actions, shareholder disputes, bankruptcy, restructuring, and creditor litigation, and other complex matters.

The Texas offices' Restructuring attorneys operate as an integral part of our global restructuring practice. Weil’s premier U.S. Restructuring practice has been involved in countless international and U.S. restructurings over many decades, with representations ranging from top global corporations in mega-restructurings to middle-market debtors.

In addition, Weil has been involved in the oil and gas business since it opened its offices in Texas more than 30 years ago, and few law firms in the world can boast Weil's collective experience and knowledge of the industry, which involves nearly every practice group at the Firm.

Awards and Recognition

  • Dallas office Managing Partner Courtney Marcus was named Best Lawyer for Banking & Finance by D Magazine in 2023, for the third year in a row. She was also named to D CEO’s 2024 Dallas 500 list as one of the Dallas area’s most powerful and influential business leaders in the Law – Managing Partners category, for the fifth consecutive year. Previously, Courtney was named to the 2022 Women in Business Law Guide in Legal Media Group’s Expert Guides.
  • Private Equity partner David Gail was named Best Lawyer for Private Equity by D Magazine in 2023, for the third year in a row. He was also named Dealmaker: Attorney of the Year at the 2022 Mergers & Acquisitions Awards, presented by D CEO and the Association for Corporate Growth’s Dallas-Fort Worth chapter.
  • Vynessa Nemunaitis was named a 2023 40 Under 40 honoree by the Dallas Business Journal, and as one of D Magazine’s 2023 Best Lawyers Under 40. Previously, Vynessa was named a Rising Star in Legal Media Group's 2021 and 2022 Expert Guides and a 2021 Emerging Leader by The M&A Advisor, and was also named a Texas Lawyer On The Rise honoree at the 2021 Texas Legal Excellence Awards.
  • Complex Commercial Litigation partner Liz Ryan was named to Benchmark Litigation’s 40 & Under Hot List from 2017-2023. Liz was also named a Texas Lawyer On the Rise honoree in 2022.
  • Tax partner Jonathan Macke was recognized as Highly Regarded in International Tax Review’s World Tax 2024 guide, an honor he received for the second consecutive year.
  • Mergers & Acquisitions partner James Griffin was named to Lawdragon’s 2024 500 Leading Dealmakers in America guide. James was previously named to D CEO’s 2020 Dallas 500 list in the Law – Mergers & Acquisitions category, an honor he received for the third time.
  • Retired partner Glenn D. West was named a Best Lawyer for Corporate Law: Private Equity by D Magazine in 2022.
  • The Dallas office was recognized as #1 for summer associate satisfaction in The American Lawyer’s 2023 Summer Associates Survey.
  • Weil was named among the Best Law Firms to Work for in Texas on the Vault Law 100 2024 ranking.

Pro Bono Initiatives and Community Service

Weil is widely considered a leader in pro bono service to the Dallas community, Texas and beyond. Through its innovative Lend-A-Lawyer program, created in 2005 in partnership with the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program (DVAP), Weil regularly sends a third- or fourth-year associate to work full-time for a two-month period on pro bono matters for indigent clients at the offices of Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas.

The Dallas office has repeatedly won DVAP Gold and Silver Awards recognizing pro bono excellence and the W. Frank Newton Award, the State Bar of Texas’ top law firm pro bono honor. In addition, individual Weil attorneys have several times earned the State Bar’s Frank J. Scurlock Award for Pro Bono Service and DVAP’s Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year Award. Individual Weil attorneys were honored by the Texas Civil Rights Project with its 2015 Kristi Couvillon Pro Bono Award. The office has also received the 2014 Dallas Rotary Club’s Corporate Citizen of the Year Award, recognizing its outstanding community commitment, and the 2014 Lisa Blue & Fred Baron Access to Justice Award, which recognizes outstanding commitment to pro bono work. Most recently, the office won the prestigious 2022 Angel of Freedom Award from the Human Rights Initiative of North Texas (HRI), which provides legal and critical services for immigrant survivors of human rights abuses from all over the world.

The Firm’s Dallas office is also widely recognized for creating a diverse workplace that values teamwork and tolerance. For seven consecutive years, it was ranked #1 for diversity among major law firms in the Dallas Diversity Task Force (DDTF) annual report. In 2015, it was honored with the DDTF’s 10th anniversary “Frontrunner Award” for its longstanding work advancing the hiring, retention, and promotion of diverse attorneys. The firm’s Dallas, Houston and Miami offices together have twice earned the Minority Corporate Counsel Association’s coveted Thomas L. Sager Award, recognizing a law firm in the South/Southwest region for its outstanding commitment to workplace diversity.