Baker Botts L.L.P.

With deep roots in the Lone Star State, Baker Botts has become an international firm with 12 offices across the world and nearly 700 lawyers in its ranks. The firm fields legal teams in energy, environmental law, intellectual property (IP), litigation, and project finance practice areas.

All in the Family

Baker Botts was Texan before Texas was a state. In 1840, Peter Gray founded the firm in the Republic of Texas. Gray’s first clients had agricultural interests, such as sugar, cotton, and timber. Clients included the Southern Pacific and Union railroads. Approximately three decades later, Gray handed the reins to Colonel W. B. Botts and James A. Baker (aka Judge Baker), who nudged Gray’s name off the firm stationery so that the firm became known as Baker & Botts. Judge Baker’s son, James A. Baker II (aka Captain Baker), joined the firm shortly thereafter and saw the firm become one of the largest in the country in the early 20th century. The next two generations of James Bakers—III, who served as secretary of state under President George H. W. Bush, and IV, his son—also made their way into partnership.  

Tech Titans and Energy 

Baker Botts’ lawyers work in various practices involving corporate, global projects, IP, litigation, and tax matters. The firm’s clients include Fortune 100 companies, small businesses, government entities, and individuals. Moreover, Baker Botts attorneys advise clients in myriad industries, such as banking and finance, construction, consumer products, energy and natural resources, insurance, life sciences, real estate, and technology.

Today, more than one-third of the firm’s attorneys—250 lawyers in 12 offices around the world—work in the technology sector. The firm establishes balanced teams of experienced trial lawyers and litigators who have technical backgrounds and fully understand clients’ technologies to tackle any complex legal issue. The firm’s technology practice crosses borders and is involved in various matters across practices. Moreover, the firm’s transactional and tax lawyers provide counsel to help clients develop business solutions.

Baker Botts is perhaps best known for its energy and natural resources practice holding a top spot in Vault’s Energy, Oil, & Gas rankings. The attorneys in this practice have handled more than 3,700 matters across the globe in the past decade, and they advise clients on issues relating to oil, natural gas, liquified natural gas, coal, and renewables.

Favorite Attributes

Associates at Baker Botts aren’t left in the dark about the criteria to succeed. The firm’s associate attributes model delineates 10 competencies that are key to success at the firm: building relationships, commitment to excellence, creative problem-solving, confidence, dedication, leadership, oral communication skills, research skills, substantive knowledge, and written communication skills. This model provides associates at different levels with insights into expectations, and the firm aims to provide its attorneys the experience necessary to learn these skills, thereby helping them become effective lawyers through each career stage.

• No. 1 Law Firm for Business and Innovation, 2025—Bloomberg Law
• Best Law Firms Law Firm of the Year—Oil & Gas Law, 2023—Best Lawyers
• Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality according to the Corporate Equality Index, 2022—Human Rights Campaign
• Mansfield Certification Plus, 2025—Diversity Lab
• Practice Groups of the Year: Energy & Natural Resources and Environmental, 2021—Law360