Spotlight On: Ricardo Garcia-Moreno, Managing Partner, Haynes Boone Houston Office

Key points:

• • Houston’s growth and Texas’ business-friendly environment are fueling demand across multiple industries.
• • Nearshoring and U.S.-Mexico trade are driving strong cross-border legal activity.
• • Haynes Boone is investing in AI, talent, and multidisciplinary services to support evolving client needs.

May 2026 — Invest: spoke with Ricardo Garcia-Moreno, managing partner of the Houston office of Haynes Boone, about Houston’s evolving business landscape, cross-border opportunities, and the firm’s approach to delivering full-service legal support. “Texas as a whole is open for business,” Garcia-Moreno said.

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How would you describe the business environment in Houston and its impact on your firm and clients?

2025 was one of the busiest and most successful years in our firm’s 55-year history, and that momentum has carried forward into 2026. The Houston market remains exceptionally vibrant, with robust activity across a wide range of industries. We are seeing foreign-based companies entering Texas and choosing Houston as their base of operations, alongside locally headquartered companies expanding both domestically and internationally.

I agree with Mayor John Whitmire’s public statements that Houston is open for business, but I would take that a step further to say that the entire state of Texas is open for business. The state has made significant strides in creating a favorable business environment. For example,  there is no state income tax, we have established specialized business courts to handle complex, high-dollar litigation, the Texas Stock Exchange has opened in Dallas, and there have been meaningful updates to our corporate statutes that promote strong corporate governance standards for commercial entities, including public companies. Houston benefits from all of this.

Houston is a major global trading hub with a GDP that would rank among the largest economies in the world if it were an independent country. The region has a deep and diversified energy industry spanning upstream oil and gas, midstream, downstream, renewables, commodities, oilfield services, and emerging technologies, such as carbon capture and geothermal power. Beyond energy, Houston offers world-class infrastructure, including one of the largest ports in the United States, major international airports, and the Texas Medical Center. These factors collectively create significant commercial opportunities for our clients and for new market entrants, and they keep us busy.

What types of investments and sectors are driving demand for your services?

As you are aware, Houston has a strong tie to the energy sector, so a significant share of our activity is concentrated in that space, and the firm is deeply engaged in supporting clients across this industry. At the same time, we are seeing meaningful growth in manufacturing, life sciences and healthcare, finance, real estate, and technology—including artificial intelligence and fintech.

One notable trend we are seeing across the country is the rapid expansion of investment in data centers and the related infrastructure and power sector. These projects require a multidisciplinary legal approach, bringing together attorneys from energy, power, corporate, finance, real estate, intellectual property, and regulatory practices. That kind of cross-practice collaboration is something we are well positioned to provide.

Overall, we are seeing strong demand across both traditional energy and emerging sectors, and our platform enables us to support clients across that full spectrum.

How are nearshoring and U.S.-Mexico trade flows shaping your cross-border work?

Texas is Mexico’s leading trading partner, and our proximity to the border naturally creates significant opportunities. We are seeing a high level of M&A activity, both from Mexican companies investing in the United States to diversify their offerings and from U.S.-based companies operating in or expanding into Mexico.

Haynes Boone has maintained a presence in Mexico for over 30 years, and we remain bullish on opportunities not only there but across Latin America. We have a strong team of lawyers working across our U.S. and Mexico offices to support cross-border projects and transactions.

Nearshoring is a key driver of this activity. Companies are increasingly establishing operations in Mexico to take advantage of cost efficiencies and proximity to U.S. markets. Our ability to provide integrated legal support across both jurisdictions is a significant advantage for clients pursuing these opportunities.

In a highly competitive legal market, how are you positioning your Houston office for continued growth?

Houston is one of the most competitive legal markets in the country, largely because of the opportunities it offers. Since 2010, approximately 90 major law firms have opened offices here, and that trend continues. It is competitive for a reason: these firms and their clients see extraordinary opportunities in Houston.

We have been in Houston for over 35 years and have maintained an office in The Woodlands since 2018. Haynes Boone is deeply committed to Houston. We offer a full-service platform that allows us to support clients across all industries and through all economic cycles. And when the economy contracts and the transactional work slows, our litigation and restructuring practices remain active, providing balance and stability. 

We are always on the lookout for exceptional talent, whether at top law schools or peer firms, and we are actively recruiting to grow our team. Equally important is talent retention—a key differentiator for us. It is not enough to attract top lawyers; you have to retain them. We have one of the lowest attrition rates in the industry, which creates continuity for our clients and strengthens our culture.

How have client expectations evolved, and how are you responding to those changes?

Client expectations have always been demanding because clients themselves are under significant pressure to deliver results for their stakeholders—whether that means closing a transaction quickly, achieving a favorable litigation outcome, or meeting revenue targets. They understandably expect fast response times, strategic and practical insight, and cost-efficient solutions from their legal advisors. Technology has played a major role in shaping those expectations, as communications are now instantaneous and constant. When I started practicing over 32 years ago, we relied on faxes and FedEx to get documents from one party to another. Now you press a button and those same documents arrive around the world in seconds. Advances in artificial intelligence will continue to reshape how we practice law.

We focus on being highly responsive and pride ourselves on understanding our clients’ businesses in depth, which allows us to provide practical, cost-efficient solutions. But clients are not simply looking for legal answers—they want strategic thinkers who can anticipate future challenges and opportunities for their businesses. We are adopting the latest technologies to support those efforts.

How is technology, particularly AI, influencing your legal services?

AI and other technologies are transforming both the legal industry and our clients’ businesses. We are actively adopting these tools to better serve our clients. With that said, these technologies are simply tools and are not intended to replace attorneys or their experience. The role of the lawyer remains essential, particularly when it comes to judgment, strategy, and client relationships. Our goal is to use technology to enhance our capabilities, not to diminish the human element.

Clients expect us to be at the forefront of these developments, and we are working closely with them to integrate these tools in a way that improves service delivery and cost efficiency.

How are you developing and retaining talent within the firm?

Talent development starts early. We invest heavily in recruiting from top law schools and view our summer associates as future partners from day one. That mindset shapes how we train and mentor our lawyers.

We combine structured and informal mentorship, with partners actively involved in guiding our younger attorneys. We also emphasize relationships across the firm, not just within individual practice groups.

Our culture plays a major role in retention. We create an environment where people feel invested in the firm and in each other. That stability benefits both our team and our clients.

What are your top priorities for the Houston office over the next few years?

Our primary focus is always on our clients and making sure we continue to provide them with the highest level of service. To achieve that, we plan to grow strategically by adding great talent at all levels, whether it be our staff, entry-level associates, or experienced lateral partners, to continue strengthening our existing practices and expanding into new practice areas.

We are also focused on staying ahead of trends that matter to our clients. For example, we have established a Venezuela Task Force to support clients exploring opportunities across various industries in that country, as well as a multidisciplinary data center practice to address the surge in demand in that space.

In addition, we have developed programs such as our Crisis Management Academy, which brings together lawyers from multiple disciplines to help clients prepare for and respond to unexpected events, and our Trial Academy, which is designed to sharpen advocacy skills and prepare our litigators for trial. These are just two examples of initiatives that reflect our commitment to anticipating client needs and providing proactive solutions.

Want more? Read the Invest: Houston report.