2024 DIVERSITY DATABASE UNDERWRITER Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP

The result of 2018’s largest merger, Hunton Andrews Kurth, pairs two firms—each with over a century of history—that had been growing by leaps and bounds in the previous few years. Mid-Atlantic-based Hunton & Williams brought with it leading global practices in privacy and cybersecurity, energy, financial services, and real estate. Houston’s Andrews Kurth Kenyon had grown from a Lonestar State stalwart to an international firm renowned for its energy, environmental, and intellectual property (IP) practices.

A Tale of Two Firms

Though founded more than 1,000 miles apart, Hunton & Williams and Andrews Kurth Kenyon were in many ways mirror images of one another. Eppa Hunton, Randolph Williams, and two others founded their firm in Richmond, VA, in 1901 and quickly attracted banks, railroads, energy companies, and utilities as clients. Only a year later, Frank Andrews and Thomas Ball founded a firm in Houston representing railroad bigwigs like Houston Belt, Terminal Railroad, and the Gulf Coast Lines. In its early days, Andrews’ firm was heavily involved in the city’s development, helping secure funding to build the Port of Houston and working with the Houston Land Corporation. John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil—which controlled 90% of the country’s oil production—was a client of both firms until the Supreme Court ordered the company to be broken up in 1911. 

Both legacy firms began expanding from their home bases in the second half of the 20th century. Today, Hunton boasts nearly 900 lawyers across 12 domestic and five international offices. The firm is particularly well-known in the South and is in the top 25 of Vault’s Regional rankings for both Texas and the South Atlantic.

Feeling Energized

Hunton practices across dozens of areas, including banking and finance, bankruptcy/restructuring, capital markets, corporate, energy, environmental, healthcare and life sciences, insurance, IP, labor and employment, litigation, M&A, privacy, private equity, real estate, tax, and white collar defense, for example.

The firm has a robust energy practice, handling everything from permits, litigation, project development and finance, capital markets, M&A, and regulatory matters to tax law. The firm takes an interdisciplinary approach, with lawyers from the energy space collaborating with those in antitrust, bankruptcy, IP, labor and employee benefits, and real estate. The firm’s energy practice includes more than 400 attorneys. 

Environmental law is another of the firm’s fortes. The firm’s bench boasts experience working at the EPA, DOJ, DOI, DOE, and other government agencies. Among the industries that the firm covers are automobile, chemical, energy, oil and gas, manufacturing, real estate development, semiconductor, and steel. Hunton is ranked among the top 15 in Vault’s Environmental Law practice area ranking.

• Represented Yahoo! (now Verizon) regarding nation-state and criminal cybersecurity attacks that compromised ~3 billion user accounts, defending it in over 40 consumer class actions across districts, providing regulatory and litigation counsel and managing state, federal, and international investigation responses.
• Advised Japan Bank for International Cooperation on financing for and development of the first three projects, totaling $36 billion in investment in mineral manufacturing and energy facilities, under the 2025 U.S.-Japan $550 billion bilateral strategic trade agreement.
• Represented Healthcare Realty Trust in its $18 billion combination with Healthcare Trust of America, creating one of the nation’s largest owners of medical office buildings.
• Advising Perpetua Resources in connection with a $2.9 billion Export-Import Bank of the U.S. senior secured long-term loan—the largest under EXIM’s Make More in America initiative and EXIM’s fourth largest loan on record—to support development of Perpetua’s Idaho Stibnite Gold Project.

• Recognized as a Strong Performer for Associate Satisfaction, AI Integration, Benefits & Quality of Life, and Career Development, 2026—Chambers Associate
• Associate Satisfaction A-Listers, 2026—BTI Consulting
• Best Companies to Work For: Law Firm, 2026—U.S. News and World Report
• Law Firm Ally Award, 2026—Miami-Dade Bar Young Lawyers Section
• Pulse Social Impact Leaders, 2025—Law360