[2] The firm was founded as Howrey, Simon, Baker, & Murchison in July 1956 by four antitrust attorneys: Jack Howrey, a former chairman of the Federal Trade Commission under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Bill Simon, Hal Baker and Dave Murchison.

In 2000, Howrey & Simon merged with Arnold, White & Durkee, an intellectual property specialty firm founded in 1956 in Houston, Texas with offices in six cities and 120 attorneys.

About 60 attorneys departed from Howrey in the year before January 2011, including co-chairs of the firm's antitrust and litigation practices.

In April 2011, Trepel McGrane Greenfield LLP, a law firm headquartered in San Jose, California, representing a group of alleged creditors of Howrey LLP, filed an involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition against the law firm with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California.

[8][9] The case remains pending with a motion for sale of property filed by the trustee scheduled for hearing on December 29, 2023.