Pain at Patton Boggs

On Tuesday, Above the Law noted that "D.C.-based powerhouse Patton Boggs, known for its leading lobbying and administrative / regulatory practices, laid off four associates in its Dallas office." Spokeswoman Rebecca Carr tells Texas Lawyer that Patton Boggs has indeed “let go” nine associates firmwide, including four who were in its Dallas office. She says the economy is just one factor involved in those releases by the approximately 600-lawyer firm. Some of the nine associates left of their own volition “before we asked them to leave,” Carr says. The firm let go other associates after taking a harder look at their performance this year in the context of the softer economy, she says. But Carr points out that the total number of associates released is only about 4 percent of the approximately 200 associates Patton Boggs has firmwide. However, Patton Boggs has seen a decrease in the total number of lawyers in its Dallas office this year. On Jan. 1, the firm had 108 lawyers in its Dallas office, according to Texas Lawyer’s “The Texas 100” list. As noted on Patton Boggs’ Web site, the firm now has 95 lawyers in Dallas. Carr says some attorneys may have moved from Patton Boggs’ Dallas office to one of the firm’s other offices. But such moves are not the only reason for the decrease in the number of lawyers Patton Boggs has had in Big D. In February, Texas Lawyer reported that a group of nine lawyers, led by intellectual property attorney Gerald Welch, left Patton Boggs to join the Dallas office of Chicago-based Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal. Welch had been deputy chairman of Patton Boggs’ national IP department and a member of the firm’s managing committee. Last Friday, the Dallas Business Journal reported that Sonnenschein's Dallas office "has signed a 10-year lease for 36,000 square feet on the 19th and 20th floors of the new 2000 McKinney Ave. building, also known as the Texas Capital Bank building," a luxury office tower under construction in Uptown. The DBJ article also noted that the Dallas office of Patton Boggs "has leased 114,000 square feet in the tower."

-- Mary Alice Robbins