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

  • Courtney Marcus was named to D CEO Magazine’s 2023 Dallas 500 list as one of the Dallas area’s most powerful and influential business leaders for the Law – Managing Partners category. This is the fourth consecutive year that Ms. Marcus has been honored. Previously, James Griffin was named to D CEO Magazine’s 2020 Dallas 500 list for the Law – Mergers & Acquisitions category, an honor he received for the third time.
  • David Gail was named “Dealmaker: Attorney of the Year” at the 2022 Mergers & Acquisitions Awards, presented by D CEO magazine and the Association for Corporate Growth’s Dallas-Fort Worth chapter.
  • Three partners were ranked by Chambers USA 2021 including: James Griffin as a “Leading” lawyer for Corporate M&A: Texas; Courtney Marcus as a “Leading” lawyer for Banking & Finance: Texas.
  • Two partners named “Best Lawyer” by D Magazine in 2023: Co-Managing Partner of the Dallas office Courtney Marcus for Banking & Finance and David Gail for PE. Both were so honored for the third year in a row.
  • Liz Ryan was named to Benchmark Litigation’s “Under 40 Hot List” from 2017-2023 and was a Texas Lawyer On the Rise honoree in 2022.
  • Courtney Marcus was named a Trailblazer by Texas Lawyer in 2020. 
  • David Gail was recognized for M&A Deal of the Year at the 2019 Texas Lawbook and ACC-DFW Corporate Counsel Awards.
  • David Gail was named a 2019 “Emerging Leader” by The M&A Advisor and among the 2017 “Lawyers on the Rise” award honorees by Texas Lawyer and has been recognized as a “Rising Star” in Texas for corporate M&A by Super Lawyers*** since 2016.
  • James Griffin was named to a select list of 100 attorneys and executives who have had an impact on business and legal matters in communities across the U.S. by the Dallas Business Journal in 2018.
  • James Griffin and Courtney Marcus were named to the inaugural Dallas Business Journal “Dealmakers” list in 2017.
  • Jonathan Macke was named a 2017 Dallas Business Journal 40 Under 40 honoree.

** Best Lawyers (in America) is by Levine Leichtman Capital Partners

*** Super Lawyers recognition is a Thomson Reuters service

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.