Baker Botts’ new managing partner is looking beyond Texas for growth
Baker Botts, one of the oldest, largest and most successful corporate law firms in Houston history, has chosen its first non-Texasbased partner as its next leader — a signal that many Baker Botts leaders believe that the firm’s future growth will take place outside the Lone Star State.
Last week, Baker Botts partners elected John Martin, a corporate transactional lawyer based in the firm’s Palo Alto office, to be its managing partner starting April 1.
A 1984 graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, Martin has represented business clients in mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and capital markets for 35 years — all at Baker Botts. For the past five years, he has led the firm’s growing operations in Silicon Valley.
In an interview with The Texas Lawbook, Martin said the future of Baker Botts is bright, the firm has no plans to merge with a competitor and he has no plans to move to Houston.
“I have deep roots in Texas, but I now consider myself a Californian,” he said. “I don’t plan to relocate. I will be living on airplanes visiting with our lawyers and clients, but I have no plan to move.”
Martin said that Baker Botts remains strong in Texas, but that the firm is focused heavily on growing in California, New York and London.
Baker Botts currently has 742 lawyers spread out over 14 offices. Exactly half of the legal team — 371 attorneys — is based outside of Texas and 371 have offices in the state. Baker Botts reported $731.8 million in revenues in 2017.
The Texas Lawbook estimates that 55 percent of those revenues were generated by lawyers based in Texas.
“It says something that 90 percent of the 24 lateral partners we’ve hired since Jan. 1, 2018, are based outside of Texas,” Martin said.
Martin replaces Andrew Baker, who also was a corporate partner in Baker Botts’ Dallas office when he was elected eight years ago and then moved to Houston to be the firm’s full-time leader. Baker Botts limits lawyers to serving two four-year terms as managing partner.
Robb Voyles, a long-time partner in Baker Botts’ litigation section, was widely viewed as the firm’s next managing partner, but he left Baker Botts in 2014 to be the general counsel of Halliburton.
Born and raised in Dallas, Martin is the first lawyer in his family. He went to college at Baylor University and law school at the University of Texas, which is where he was initially introduced to lawyers at Baker Botts.
During his 35 years at the Houstonbased law firm, Martin has specialized in corporate mergers and acquisitions, especially in the technology sector. He was one of the lawyers who helped open the Dallas office and then moved to California in 2013 to help lead the firm’s operations there.
Despite leading Baker Botts’s recruitment efforts, Martin says he is still the target of law firms and headhunters.
“I get called pretty frequently,” he said. “It is definitely a different, more competitive market for talent and clients, but I view the rising competition as a validation of our strength.”