A story of our founders

More Than a Century
in the Making

In 1917, Woodrow Wilson was president, the United States was entering World War I, and Texas was in the midst of a historic oil boom. Against that backdrop, William Ashton Vinson and James Anderson Elkins, Sr. forged a partnership that would become a world leading energy law firm over the course of the next century.

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2026

Brussels Expansion Bolsters Firm's Platform with Enhanced Antitrust Capabilities

By establishing a presence in Brussels—the heart of European competition enforcement—the firm expands its global reach and strengthens its ability to counsel clients on high‑stakes antitrust issues.

2024

New Dublin Office Expands Global Footprint with Focus on Aviation Finance

Expanding into Ireland’s commercial hub and the world’s leading center for aviation finance further strengthens the firm’s global presence and enhances its ability to serve clients across the sector.
The towering high rises of Denver's downtown sit between the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains to the west and the tree lined neighborhoods and parks of the city to the east.

2024

Going Mile High in Denver

The new office complements the firm’s work across both the energy transition and conventional energy sectors.
A professional group portrait of the four-member Executive Committee in a modern, well-lit office lounge. From left to right: Hilary Preston, Keith Fullenweider, Jim Fox, and Michael Holmes. They are all wearing business suits, with the three men in dark suits and the woman in a black suit with a light purple scarf. A blue sofa, an orchid, and wood-paneled walls are visible in the background.

2022

Executive Committee Takes the Helm

Marking the beginning of a new leadership structure, the partnership elects a four-member Executive Committee from across offices and practices: Chair Keith Fullenweider (Houston) and Vice Chairs Jim Fox (New York), Michael Holmes (Dallas), and Hilary Preston (Austin).

2020

A photograph taken at the Houston City Council chambers shows four people, including two men in dark suits and a woman in a black and white striped outfit, posing with an official proclamation document. From left to right: an attorney, Council Member Ellen Cohen, another attorney holding the proclamation, and Mayor Sylvester Turner in a light brown suit and red tie. The background features wood paneling and signs reading "JUSTICE" and "COUNSEL."

2017

Celebrating Our Centennial

Founded with an entrepreneurial spirit that still exists today, Vinson & Elkins endures as a successful and growing law firm serving clients across the globe, with an eye toward the future. The Houston City Council issues a special proclamation establishing a Vinson & Elkins Day in honor of the firm’s 100th anniversary.

2012

Strong Duo Begins Successful 10 Years

T. Mark Kelly and Scott N. Wulfe are elected as Chairman and Managing Partner, respectively. During their successful 10-year tenure, the firm sees steady expansion, with offices opening in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Richmond. Vinson & Elkins continues to dominate the global energy sector and expand into other areas, such as digital infrastructure, aviation finance, shareholder engagement, and international competition law.

2010

2007

Advising on the Largest LBO in History

Vinson & Elkins represents private equity investors in the $45 billion purchase of TXU Corp., which at the time is the largest leveraged buyout in history.
A professional headshot of Joseph C. Dilg, a man with gray hair, wearing a dark suit with a subtle plaid pattern, a white shirt, and a bright orange tie with a small pattern. He is smiling and positioned in front of a blurred window view of a modern building.

2002

Growth During Dilg Tenure

Joseph C. Dilg begins his term as Managing Partner. Firm headcount grows to more than 750 lawyers and 800 business professionals during Dilg’s term.

2000

1998

New York Office Strengthens Vinson & Elkins’ Presence at the Center of Global Business

The firm’s New York office serves as a strategic hub for delivering high-quality legal counsel to a wide range of blue-chip clients — including leading private equity firms, investment banks, financial institutions, and public and private companies. The team advises across key industries such as energy, infrastructure, real estate, media and entertainment, technology, and aviation finance. With more than 130 lawyers, the New York office brings deep experience in capital markets, private equity, mergers and acquisitions, commercial and securities litigation, white collar defense, finance, tax, and corporate restructurings — supporting clients in some of their most complex and high-stakes matters.

1992

Reasoner’s Legacy of Leadership

Harry Reasoner begins his term as Managing Partner and becomes a nationally renowned trial lawyer, winning billion-dollar verdicts in the highest of high-stakes cases. Reasoner spearheads the firm’s effort to provide employees with same-sex domestic partner benefits, among the first major employers in Houston to do so. Aa champion of pro bono legal services, Reasoner is instrumental in implementing many of the firm’s legal assistance programs.

1990

A black and white photo from 1987 showing a group of seven professionals, five men and two women, posing together in an office. They are all wearing suspenders and ties in a period fashion, with one man seated in the foreground and the others standing behind him, all smiling.

1987

Victory at Texas First Court of Appeals

Harry Reasoner helps secure a significant appellate victory for Pennzoil at the Texas Court of Appeals, with a record-setting $12.53 billion verdict against Texaco for tortiously interfering with Pennzoil’s purchase of Getty Oil. The Supreme Court of Texas refuses to review the decision and the case subsequently settles.

An aerial photograph of the **Dallas, Texas skyline** taken in 1984, showing a dense cluster of downtown skyscrapers, including the tall, cylindrical Reunion Tower on the right. In the foreground are large, undeveloped dirt lots, elevated highways, and roads, illustrating the city's infrastructure and ongoing urban development.

1986

New Dallas Office Deepens Vinson & Elkins’ Texas Roots

As the firm’s second-largest office with more than 140 lawyers and 50 business professionals, the Dallas office is home to many of the firm’s key practice groups and offers a full range of client services in finance, real estate, litigation, and regulatory matters.
A high-contrast black and white photograph, likely from 1979, showing a Boeing 727 airplane flying high in the distance, silhouetted against a cloudy sky. The foreground is dominated by the large, dark silhouette of an aircraft tail section lying on the ground, creating a stark visual contrast.

1981

Ready for Takeoff with Southwest Airlines

Vinson & Elkins represents Southwest Airlines in its acquisition of Muse Air, overcoming antitrust objections from the US Department of Transportation. Today, Southwest remains the firm’s longest continuing client.

A black and white headshot of Carol Dinkins, a professional woman with short dark hair, wearing a suit jacket, a collared shirt, and a tie, smiling slightly toward the camera.

1980

Legacy of Firsts

Carol Dinkins is elected as Vinson & Elkins’ first female partner. Dinkins served in two appointments by President Ronald Reagan. In 1981, Dinkins becomes the first woman Assistant Attorney General to head the US Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division. President Reagan again taps Dinkins in 1984 to serve as Deputy Attorney General, making her the highest-ranking woman ever at Justice at the time. Following her return to the firm, Dinkins would lead the firm’s Environment and Natural Resources practice until her retirement in 2015.

1980

1979

Moving into Austin

Earlier in the 20th century, Vinson & Elkins lawyers had spent many years lobbying the Texas state legislature and representing clients before state agencies. But it was not until 1979 that the firm formally opened in Austin. Today, lawyers in the Austin office represent clients in a range of areas, including intellectual property, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, venture capital, litigation, environmental, appellate, and regulatory.

A black and white announcement letter dated January 1, 1977, from a law firm. The text states that the name of the firm has been changed from Vinson, Elkins, Searls, Connally & Smith to Vinson & Elkins. The announcement also lists the names of several individuals who were formerly associates and have now become members of the firm. It notes that Mr. Brannan will be in the London office.

1977

Short and Sweet Goes the Name

Strengthening its brand, the firm changes its name to Vinson & Elkins.

A black and white photograph from 1976 of a street scene in Washington, D.C., looking toward the U.S. Capitol Building dome in the distance. The wide street is lined with bare trees, cars from the 1970s, and two buses parked on the right, with several pedestrians crossing in the middle ground.

1973

Successful Capital Investment

Active in the nation’s capital for many years, prominent Vinson & Elkins lawyer Lynn Coleman moves from Houston to open a new office in Washington, DC. He would leave the firm in 1978 to become the first General Counsel of the newly formed US Department of Energy.

A black and white aerial photograph of the London skyline, taken in 1971. The River Thames flows horizontally through the middle ground, with St Paul's Cathedral dome and several early modern skyscrapers visible in the distance. Construction cranes and lower-rise buildings dominate the foreground and riverbanks, illustrating the city's development.

1971

London Office Opens with North Sea Opportunities

Vinson & Elkins’ London office — one of the oldest established by a US law firm in the city — advises on international arbitration and High Court litigation, as well as energy, infrastructure, and construction transactions and projects, finance, mergers and acquisitions, and private equity. The firm’s presence in London was driven by the needs of clients exploring for oil and gas in the North Sea, requiring experienced legal counsel with international reach.

1970

A black and white formal portrait of John Connally, a prominent American politician, looking directly at the camera. He is wearing a plaid suit jacket, a vest, and a striped tie.

1969

Governor Connally Raises Firm Profile

Former Texas Governor John B. Connally, Jr. joins as a named partner, and the firm is known as Vinson, Elkins, Searls & Connally. Connally served as the 39th Governor of Texas, as Secretary of the Navy under President Kennedy, and as Secretary of the Treasury under President Nixon.

1960

A black and white map illustrating the routes of the "Big Inch" and "Little Big Inch" oil pipelines, running diagonally from East Texas, through Arkansas, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania, to refineries in the New York and Philadelphia areas. The map shows pump stations along the route and includes a caption describing the pipelines' use for delivering oil to the East Coast during wartime.

1947

Pipelines Aid the War Effort — and Transform the Energy Market

Texas Eastern Transmission Corporation (TETCO) is named the winning bidder for the Big Inch and Little Big Inch pipelines. TETCO founders include James “Judge” Elkins, Charles I. Francis, and construction magnates George and Herman Brown. Built by the federal government during World War II, the pipelines stretched from Texas to New Jersey and shipped crude oil across the country, helping circumvent attacks on tankers from Axis submarines. After the war, TETCO would convert the lines to natural gas, transforming the energy market on the east coast. These pipelines remain in operation today.

A black and white, dramatic photograph of the Supreme Court of the United States building in Washington D.C. The neoclassical structure, with its central portico and tall columns, is viewed from the base of the wide exterior steps, with dark clouds framing the top of the building.

1940

Landmark Supreme Court Ruling for Diverse Juries

William Vinson and Sam W. Davis team with local counsel to secure a landmark US Supreme Court ruling in Smith v. State of Texas, requiring more racially diverse representation on grand juries in Texas.

1940

A stark, black and white photograph of an oil pumpjack, or nodding donkey, dominating the foreground in a barren, flat landscape. The machine stands tall against a bright sky filled with scattered cumulus clouds, with several other pumpjacks visible in the distance.

1929

Surviving the Great Depression

Vinson & Elkins fares well through the Great Depression. However, the firm’s growing base of energy clients find themselves in the throes of a crisis when the oil market crashes. Judge Elkins travels to Washington, DC, to advocate for federal regulations aimed at discouraging overproduction.

A black and white architectural rendering or photograph of a tall, imposing, stepped skyscraper, possibly from the 1920s or 1930s. The building, illuminated against a dark background, features numerous small lighted windows, a classical-style base with arched windows, and a multi-tiered, elaborate tower top, with the name "COMMERCIAL NATIONAL BANK" visible near the bottom.

1924

Banking Opens Doors

Judge Elkins forms the Guaranty Trust Company, which would later become First City National Bank, the largest bank in Houston. Over the next several decades, the bank would give the firm increasing access to the city’s business community, and many firm clients would become customers of the bank.

1920

A black and white image displaying two side-by-side formal oval portraits of the law firm founders. On the left is Wm A. Vinson, and on the right is J. A. Elkins. Both men are wearing suits and high-collared shirts, and their names are written on banners beneath their respective portraits.

1917

Vinson & Elkins Is Born

Woodrow Wilson is president, the United States is entering World War I, and Texas is in the midst of an historic oil boom. Against that backdrop, William Vinson and James Elkins forge a partnership — with early business prospects in the timber, insurance, and oil industries — in what would become a world-leading energy law firm over the course of the next century.

William Ashton Vinson was born in 1874 in South Carolina. He moved to Texas as a youth and graduated from Austin College. After passing the bar examination in 1898, Vinson went into private practice, representing clients primarily in the timber and insurance industries. He moved to Houston in 1909.

James Anderson Elkins, Sr. was born in 1879 in Texas. He studied at Sam Houston Normal Institute, before enrolling at The University of Texas Law School. In 1903, he was appointed Walker County Judge. Judge Elkins built a successful career as a lawyer, founded two banks, and developed important social and political connections along the way.

We should strive to follow the precepts of the Golden Rule of Law: To live honorably, to injure no one, to render to everyone his due.’ According to this code, the life of a true lawyer must be molded. Without integrity and courage and resolution, there can be no professional career, no judicial career — no career of any kind worthy of respect.

— James A. Elkins, 1937