Fish & Richardson, which does intellectual property and commercial work and litigation, will close its Austin office by the end of the year. Some of the 25 lawyers currently working in Austin will move to other firm offices, says Thomas Melsheimer, managing principal of the firm’s 55-lawyer Dallas office. “We’ve got some immensely talented people down there that we hate to lose, but we are facing the same economic conditions that our clients are facing and other firms are facing,” Melsheimer says. “Like a lot of firms, we are bigger than we need to be for the work that is available,” he says. Melsheimer says many of the Austin lawyers would be welcomed with open arms at other Fish & Richardson offices, but he expects many to seek employment at other firms because they want to stay in Austin. “It’s hard to get people out of Austin,” he says. Melsheimer says the decision to close the Austin office came down this week. He says the firm will maintain a Texas presence through the Dallas office, which he says is the busiest and most profitable in the firm, and the 10-lawyer Houston office, which is less than a year old. In a written statement provided by Peter Devlin, the Boston-based president of Fish & Richardson, the firm said the decision to close the Austin office resulted from “strategic decisions to invest the firm's resources in ways that build on our fundamental strengths and core competencies.” The firm will “assist those who are affected with a severance program.” Alan Albright, the managing principal in Austin, could not be reached for immediate comment.
-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys
Comments