Haynes and Boone, LLP - The Inside View

Why did you go to law school? Maybe it was the promise of a rewarding career path, engaging work, and the prestige. Okay, let’s be real – it was probably a bit about the money too. Most law grads head to the bright lights of BigLaw fearing they must sacrifice their home life (and sanity!) to access all the above. But we at Chambers Associate are here to reassure you that a healthy blend of both is out there.

Enter Haynes Boone, a giant of the Texan legal industry: a quick glance at the Chambers USA rankings will reveal why. The firm picks up the highest awards for its local bankruptcy and restructuring, trademark, copyright and trade secrets, appellate, white-collar and government investigations, and insurance prowess. It also scoops up recognition for general commercial litigation, real estate, environment, and labor and employment. Beyond the Lone Star State, the firm makes waves nationally for its oil and gas litigation, derivatives, First Amendment litigation, franchising, and government contracts expertise.

“The firm emphasizes partnership from the start of your career. You can see they want you to stay and succeed.”

Associates felt right at home at the firm, thanks to “lots of investment in training, trusted mentorship, and a really stand-out low ego culture.” But a huge pull was the number of homegrown partners. “The firm emphasizes partnership from the start of your career. You can see they want you to stay and succeed,” one associate explained.Another added: “It’s a firm where people actually built careers, rather than just ‘putting their time in.’” Although only half of the firm’s 16 US offices are outside Texas, the Dallas headquarters is the largest and where the most juniors call home.

Haynes Boone is recognized as a Strong Performer for Associate Satisfaction and Quality of Life in our 2025 survey.

Strategy & Future 

Managing partner Taylor Wilson tells us that the firm is continuing its steady growth. He mentions: “We consistently bring in new people at both the entry level and laterally, which is a big part of our success in growing the firm.” The firm has seen a huge growth in headcount between 2023 and 2024, and Wilson credits this success to their "history of being good long-term planners.” Continuing in the same vein, Wilson also highlights the firm’s new strategic 2030 plan: “The plan is divided into key goals, including talent management, community engagement, marketing and business development, and strategic growth. We encourage our attorneys to identify emerging practice areas and to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities to support our clients.”

Facing market-wide challenges, Wilson notes a “surge in counter-cyclical practices, including litigation, labor and employment and bankruptcy.” He adds: “We’ve seen significant growth in these areas over the past two years. During this period, our transactional practices have remained strong as well, in spite of economic headwinds.”

HB is ready to weather any storm though. Wilson points out the firm’s broad range of practices “has been a key ingredient to our success, ensuring that our firm-wide results are positive through any economic cycle.” Other practices to watch this year will be corporate, including M&A and capital markets, given the expectation that interest rates will fall.

The Work

Associates are spread across a range of different practices, primarily in energy and power, patent prosecution, finance, private equity, business litigation and white-collar groups. Most practices use a free-market system for work assignment.One associate recalled: “At first, you have to work to market yourself to get on people’s radar. But generally, you end up working with those who want to work with you.”

Haynes Boone's transactional offering includes energy and power, financial transactions, finance, private equity, capital markets, investment funds, restructuring and real estate. The energy and power group is a “full-service specialist group,” handling both litigation and transactions. Transactions handles both borrower and lender side oil and gas and renewable M&A transactions, private equity, project finance and development, restructuring and regulatory, and "juniors get to work on all of that!"

On one particular matter, an interviewee shared, “it was just me and a partner working on the purchase of an asset with over 200 documents involved. I was able to dive into everything and take the lead; I learnt a lot while working on that.” Day-to-day junior tasks typically involve running checklists, reviewing documents, attending client calls and drafting ancillaries.

Energy and power clients: Chesapeake Energy Corporation, Callon Petroleum Company, Diversified Energy Company. The firm represented ONEOK in its $280 million acquisition of a 450-mile natural gas liquids pipeline system from Easton Energy.

In disputes, the firm handles business litigation, white-collar defense, antitrust and securities, and insurance cases. Business litigation covers breaches of contract, shareholder disputes, energy arbitrations, and more. “It definitely differs!” quipped one interviewee. Clients range from financial services and energy, to sport, healthcare and real estate.

Typical junior tasks included discovery, drafting motions, assisting with depositions, mediations, and trial prep. One junior was pleased to report: “I’ve been able to draft cross examinations for witnesses, draft defense motions and stand up in court. It’s very hands-on!” Sources in disputes agreed: “We’re busy, there’s lots to do and plenty of opportunities for responsibility.”

Business litigation clients: BlockFi, Pizza Hut, Dallas Police and Fire Pension System. The firm represented Centennial Bank in a federal lawsuit involving a mass departure of employees following its multi-billion-dollar acquisition of Happy State Bank.

“From big tech to smaller startups the mix allows for greater responsibility depending on the size and sophistication.”

Juniors in intellectual property found themselves working with a wide range of clients from big tech to smaller startups. “The mix allows for greater responsibility depending on the size and sophistication of the client,” clarified one source.The practice is largely split between patent prosecution and litigation, as well as general tech transactions. Patent prosecution covers patent applications and trademark portfolios, while litigation tackles inter partes reviews (IPRs) in front of the UPSTO (US Patent and Trademark Office), state and federal courts claims, and international tribunals. “You can go down the route of sticking to one thing or have your hands in everything,” explained one interviewee.

On the patent and trademark side, juniors found themselves drafting responses to claims, writing patent applications, and handling trademark clearance work and lots of infringement analysis. The latter involves “reviewing cease and desist letters or seeing if another offering infringes our clients and deciding whether to file a suit.” Over in litigation, the teams are leanly staffed so that “you get to work on everything that’s needed for an IPR petition,” noted an associate.

Intellectual property clients: Dallas Cowboys, X Corporation (Twitter), Peloton. The team represented International Business Machines Corp against Innovations In Memory, which accused IBM’s memory storage systems of infringing six patents.

Career Development

Career development opportunities got a thumbs up from associates. One insider credited this to “the firm seeing you as being a potential partner from the first years in eight or ten years from now and this is reflected in the development model.” From the get-go, juniors are paired with an associate and partner mentor. “You fill out goal sheets with them and talk to about business development,” explained one source. Many sources also valued that “people are invested in my career too, as I’ve built those relationships, so there is organic investment as well.”

Associates also praised the HayBoo-U induction program and the HB Building Leaders program, which focuses on leadership. There are various workshops too, such as for depositions and specialist conferences. “The firm encourages younger associates to take the time to attend these,” pointed out one junior. However, as one source clarified, “you need to take your career development into your own hands.”

“Most of the junior partners are homegrown!”

Insiders were pleased to report that “partnership is a realistic path if you’re willing to do the work.” Many of the firm’s partners are homegrown, and one associate shared that “this was another contributing factor that made me want to join the firm.” In terms of transparency, the path to partnership was said to be “relatively clear,” and juniors can ask about it during their mentor check-ins.

Haynes Boone is recognized as an Excellent Performer for Career Development and Associate Retention in our 2025 survey.

Hours & Compensation

Billable hours: 1,800 target

Interviewees outlined that a typical working day starts between 8-9am and wraps up around 6.30pm. Depending on the practice and workload, some associates mentioned that they log back on for a couple of hours after taking a break. During busy periods, like transactional peaks, the midnight oil burns, and there can be weekend work. However, “unless it is a pressing deadline, you can hang it up and get on with it next week,” one source explained.

Associates also enjoyed the autonomy in their day-to-day schedules. The firm policy requires three days in the office, but it’s flexible. “The flexibility is a huge perk!” quipped one interviewee.

Associates need to hit 1,800 billable hours to secure their bonus. Although a few mentioned that there is a lack of transparency surrounding bonus allocation, it includes billable hours (with up to 100 pro bono hours counting) and participation in inclusion efforts, recruiting and other business development activities.

Culture

“As true of BigLaw we all work very hard, but we support each other,” one interviewee praised. Another added: “It’s very friendly here, we want to help each other out. People check in on my work and life”. The culture was summed up as professional and genuinely friendly. One junior noted that “people want to get to know you, whether it’s grabbing a coffee together to have a ten-minute walk or attending the monthly luncheon with little events here and there, like ticketed charity events.”

Juniors were also keen to point out that “it’s more family-oriented than other firms. Lots of associates and partners have kids.” This was a standout quality of HB: “It’s positive seeing that people have families and lives outside of the firm, and how culturally people take that into consideration.”

Inclusion

Associates felt the firm’s inclusion efforts were commendable, particularly in terms of gender diversity. “We’re doing a great job in percentages of women,” one source was pleased to say. In fact, 27% of partners are women. Working mothers also receive strong support: “You are able to have reduced hours, along with the parental leave policy. The firm is thoughtful about these things and is active in seeking feedback.”

HB’s ten inclusion networks cover gender, race/ethnicity, LGBTQ+ lawyers, veterans, first gen lawyers, parents and care givers, and more. We heard there are inclusion groups within each practice too, and one source added that “those networks have allies who participate – inclusive and welcoming to different backgrounds.” The firm also hosts a bi-annual inclusion committee dinner and recently held a Women’s Summit. The cherry on top? Haynes Boone has achieved Mansfield 7.0 Certification Plus for their efforts!

Pro Bono

“The firm takes pro bono very seriously; they make it welcoming for those who want to participate,” an associate enthused. The recent hire of a pro bono counsel to the program was seen as a positive addition, “they are consolidating it, encouraging people to take on matters and spreading awareness of what others in the firm are doing!” enthused one junior.

Associates have up to 100 hours of pro bono count towards their billable target and can go beyond this, so long as the firm approves. We can see why some were keen to do so, as there’s plenty of work to get involved in. Local sources highlighted the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program. Others outlined working on matters such as prisoner’s rights, immigration and asylum, wills and estates, family law and violence against women. “It was so rewarding seeing their relief by taking that burden off them,” one insider reflected.

Pro bono hours

• For all US attorneys: 12,598
• Average per US attorney: 21.7

Get Hired  

The first stage: recruitment on and off campus

OCI applicants interviewed: 6 

Interviewees outside OCI:  58 

Around 75% of 2L summers have completed either a 1L summer or other work experience at the firm before their 2L summer. The other 25% are found through OCIs, job fairs, resume collects, and direct applications.   

Attorneys (one partner and one associate) typically see around  10 candidates a day at OCIs and represent each office running a summer program. Brad Holdbrook, the firm's entry-level hiring partner, tells us that interviewers will be looking for candidates to demonstrate “effective communication skills, willingness to be an effective member of teams, leadership potential, commitment to community service, and an established motivation to succeed.” Typical inquiries of interviewees include requests to describe their accomplishments, motivations, why they are interested in Haynes Boone, and how they could add to the firm’s culture.   

Top tips for this stage:   

“Come prepared to discuss why our firm and/or certain practice areas are a fit for your skills, ask specific questions that relate to the firm or our clients, and explain how you can add to the culture at Haynes Boone.” – entry-level hiring partner, Brad Holdbrook   

Callbacks   

Applicants invited to second-stage interview: 6 from OCI +  58 interviews outside of OCI   

Callbacks consist of two to four 20-minute interview sessions, with the candidate meeting with two attorneys in each interview session. Holdbrook tells us that during the callback process, the firm is “particularly interested in a candidate’s reason for interest in our firm, the chosen city for which they are interviewing, and any practice areas the candidate may be interested in.” As such, during callbacks, candidates can expect the questions and conversation to be more focused on specific practice areas and markets.   

Top tips for this stage:   

"Be able to articulate your interest in the firm and office location. Describe your specific interest in, or ask questions about, practice areas in the office in which you are interviewing. Be prepared, but be yourself.” – entry-level hiring partner Brad Holdbrook   

Summer program   

Offers:  16 offers extended out of fall/spring recruiting in addition to  14 returning 1Ls   

Acceptances: 7/16 accepted   

Depending on office, summer associates sample two or more distinct practice areas in which they are interested. They are involved in client meetings, closings, negotiations, depositions, trials, and hearings. Typical tasks include drafting research memos, motions and briefs, and sampling a “broad range of transactional documents.” Holdbrook tells us that the firm has a “well-rounded approach to our summer programs that enables each summer associate to demonstrate their analytical, advocacy and writing skills. Our goal is for our summer program to model what life as an associate would look like.”   

The firm assigns each summer associate a partner supervisor, who oversees their work. Each summer associate also receives an associate mentor to “help answer questions and navigate the clerkship.” Summers also get to experience pro bono work, presentations, a public speaking seminar, CLEs, and training. Around 95-100% of 2L summer associates are given offers to join as associates and offers are usually extended for a specific department.   

Notable summer events: dinners, events and outings. “Social events throughout the summer are designed so the summer associates can meet a broad array of the lawyers in their office and fully experience the city in which they are clerking.”   

Top tips for this stage:   

“Take advantage of the resources provided by the firm, including the many attorneys that will make themselves available to you for guidance and mentorship.  Ask questions and pay attention to detail on assignments. Finally, pay attention to the way attorneys in your office interact with each other and the clients of the firm; that will give you invaluable insight into a day in the life of a future at Haynes Boone.” – entry-level hiring partner Brad Holdbrook