O'Melveny & Myers has moved its Houston operation into a permanent two-floor office spanning 43,000 square feet at 700 Louisiana St., the address of downtown Houston's TC Energy Center. The law firm first arrived in the city in 2022 with just a handful of lawyers and business professionals working out of temporary space, and its local team has since grown to more than 40 people.
The new space includes a central café, glass walls, natural woodwork and a lounge outfitted with a Therabody Lounger and other self-care amenities, according to Bisnow. The same report notes the office spans 43,000 square feet across two floors, a scale that reflects how far the firm's Houston presence has come since it was operating out of borrowed space just a few years ago. Houston Business Journal reports the firm outlined plans to build out a permanent office just over a year before actually moving in.
A Tower With a Long Houston History
TC Energy Center is a 56-story postmodern tower that Hines originally developed in 1983 as RepublicBank Center, before it was known for years as Bank of America Center, per Madison Marquette. The building's overall size is reported differently depending on the source: Bisnow describes it as 1.3 million square feet, while CBRE lists it as 1.25 million square feet of office and retail space. CBRE also notes the tower is linked into downtown Houston's extensive tunnel system, a feature that lets tenants move between buildings without stepping outside.
O'Melveny isn't the only law firm drawn to the address. Wright Close & Barger announced its own planned move to TC Energy Center in August 2025, according to the firm's own announcement from Wright Close Barger & Guzman.
From Three Partners to a Growing Texas Practice
O'Melveny's Houston buildout traces back to how the office got started in the first place. The firm opened its Houston outpost with three partners hired from Willkie Farr, Angela Olivarez, Steven Torello and Ryan Cicero, bringing mergers and acquisitions, private equity, capital markets and leveraged finance experience focused heavily on the energy and technology sectors, according to Bloomberg Law. That Houston launch pushed O'Melveny's statewide Texas headcount to 47 lawyers, including 20 lateral partners, and the firm said at the time it planned to keep recruiting Houston lawyers in litigation, restructuring, M&A, intellectual property and labor.
Houston wasn't O'Melveny's first stop in the state. The firm had opened offices in Austin and Dallas the year before turning its attention to Houston, the same Bloomberg Law report notes. Reuters separately described the Houston office as the firm's third new Texas outpost in the span of less than a year when it opened in 2022.
Part of a Broader Downtown Office Push
O'Melveny's new tower address lands amid continued interest from law firms in downtown Houston real estate. Norton Rose Fulbright relocated its Houston office to 1550 Lamar overlooking Discovery Green, a building the firm has described as the most sustainable office development in Houston to date. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, meanwhile, was preparing to build out a Houston office it had announced earlier in the year, according to the Houston Business Journal's sister publication.
The new TC Energy Center office also comes with high-end tech features and employee wellness amenities built in, reflecting how downtown Houston's legal tenants are competing not just for client business but for talent. For a firm that started in the city four years ago with a small team in temporary quarters, the two-floor buildout marks a clear bet on Houston's long-term role in O'Melveny's Texas strategy.
