Vinson & Elkins history

Amassing a growing client list in rail and oil, Elkins opened the Guaranty Trust Bank in 1924, which both promoted firm finances and satisfied some law firm client needs.

By 1925, V&E has become one of the most successful law firms in Texas and is growing exponentially.

The firm handled Moody-Seagraves’ significant financing and corporate transactional matters, including its sale in 1929 to the Electric Bond & Share Company, which gave rise to the United Gas System.

Prominent oil and gas litigator Charles I. Francis joins the firm, which in 1936 becomes known as Vinson, Elkins, Weems & Francis following the death of Clyde Sweeton the prior year.

He would go on to achieve the rank of lieutenant colonel and serve as deputy military governor of Frankfurt in 1945, where he led humanitarian efforts to provide for tens of thousands of displaced Europeans who were ravaged by poverty and famine.

Peddy entered the 1948 Democratic primary and polled nearly 20 percent of the vote in a three-way race, denying an outright win to former Texas Governor Coke Stevenson, who had won nearly 40 percent of the vote.

His Era of the Oath: Northern Loyalty Tests during the Civil War and Reconstruction (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1954), won the American Historical Association's Beveridge Prize.

Robert A. Shepherd, Jr., is named Managing Partner, a position he holds until 1959.

In 1960 the firm moved its offices from crowded spaces in the Esperson Building to the newly constructed FCNB Building, a 32-story highrise occupying an entire block in downtown Houston.

H. Raybourne Thompson, Sr., is named Managing Partner, a position he holds until 1962.

The firm is known as Vinson, Elkins, Weems & Searls until 1969.

In 1971 the law firm opened its London office.

While White was managing partner, Searls was widely viewed as the firm’s guiding force until his death in 1972.

One of Hyman's initial foils in telling his story is the entrance and career of Carol Dinkins into the firm as an associate (V&E's first female attorney) in 1973; Dinkins later became V&E's first female partner and member of its management committee.

Although his term as Managing Partner lasted just three years, Thompson remained with V&E until his retirement in 1977.

With the support of the Executive Committee, Smith went about further modernizing V&E in 1979, with the creation of a full-scale self-study group, charged with making recommendations on how to transform the firm to greater democratic rule.

A. Frank Smith, Jr., is named Managing Partner, a position he holds until 1981.

He later rejoined the firm, where he remained until he retired in 1982.

President Reagan tapped Dinkins in 1984 to serve as Deputy Attorney General of the United States, making her the second-ranking official and at the time, the highest ranking woman ever at Justice.

Compared to its other offices, the Dallas branch often recruited experienced attorneys as lateral hires from competing law firms. It also opened new branches, including the Dallas office in 1986.

Ph.D. diss., Northwestern University, 1987); Daniel C. Poor, Organizational Culture and Professional Selves: The Impact of Large Firm Law Practice upon Young Lawyers (unpub.

. See, e.g., Steven Kumble, Conduct Unbecoming: The Rise and Ruin of Finley, Kumble (New York: Carroll & Graf, 1990).

. Kenneth Lipartito and Joseph A. Pratt, Baker & Botts in the Development of Modern Houston (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991).

In 1992, the firm reorganizes as a limited liability partnership, and is now known as Vinson & Elkins LLP.

That practice created in 1994 a new multinational partnership that included both English solicitors as well as American attorneys.

In an interview in the September 1996 Petroleum Economist, the head of the energy team stated that his firm's "most important competitive advantage [in that field] is its broad experience in the industry over a long period of time.

Ranked according to 1997 annual revenue, V&E was number 24.

In November 1998 the American Lawyer, in cooperation with London's Legal Business, published its first survey of the world's largest law firms.

American General remained an important client of the firm’s and was eventually acquired by AIG in 2001.

Harry M. Reasoner begins his term as Managing Partner, a position he holds until 2002.

In 2007, Duke Energy spun off its gas business to form Spectra Energy, which still owns the Texas Eastern pipeline system today.

V&E has won several awards for this program, including the State Bar of Texas W. Frank Newton Award in 2009.

Joseph C. Dilg begins his term as Managing Partner, a position he holds until 2012.

Following her return to V&E, Dinkins led the firm’s Environment and Natural Resources practice until her retirement in 2015.