The fish be stinkin.

As a Yankee who's lived in both Dallas and Austin, I can assure you there is a huge difference between the two (and between Houston and Austin). Austin is the only place in Texas a Yankee can really live - and it's even getting tough here.

As a Yankee who's lived in both Dallas and Austin, I can assure you there is a huge difference between the two (and between Houston and Austin). Austin is the only place in Texas a Yankee can really live - and it's even getting tough here.

way to lead off with a dangling modifier.

terrible transition paragraphs. Grade: C-

Austin is the most overrated city in the world. It's ok, but it's no magical mecca people make it out to be.

BBQ is NOT BBQ. The BBQ around Austin is leaps and bounds over the cullinary abortion that's served in Dallas and Houston. Of course you can't really expect someone with the size of Elie to have a sophisticated enough palate to tell the difference.

Fish & Richardson is probably second to Latham in terms of reputation at my law T10 school.

This firm just can't seem to stay out of the news lately.

All of the people interested in IP are hoping to have other options.

The more correct analogy is Austin:Dallas as NYC:Flint, Michigan. I'd rather work for Travis County than live in Dallas.

Moving from Austin to Dallas is like moving from Portland (Oregon) to Phoenix.

I suppose I should know the answer to this already, but does anybody know if Austin is a recognized municipality by the State of Texas? A member in good standing of the National League of Cities?

where is future elie?

As a Yankee living in Dallas (and someone who lived in Phoenix and several places in the midwest), it's more like Austin: Dallas as Nashville: Chicago.

Has anybody fellating Austin looked at its crime rates? Constant reports of gang wilding downtown, rapes, murders, and just today, a convicted felon is on the loose after escaping from prison. The liberal soft on crime attitude has ruined the city.

Fish is in deep sh*t right now

In Austin, you live in a cute little house biking distance to downtown and walking distance to locally owned coffee shops and restaurants, and nearly everyone you meet is liberal and cosmopolitan. In Dallas and Houston, you live in a huge house in the suburbs, drive 45 minutes to get to work, eat at Chili's at the strip mall, and nearly everyone you meet is a Republican who would like to think of themselves as conservative but really is just small-minded. It would be a little bit of a change, I think.

nearly everyone you meet is liberal and cosmopolitan.

Wow, sounds God-awful

17, do you have the $750,000 you need to buy a "cute little house biking distance" to anything worthwhile in Austin? In Dallas and Houston, you can buy a huge 3500+ square foot house and a wife for under $200,000.

Elie - the interesting thing is, people in Texas don't think being left wing is so much a badge of honor as it is a target. By the by, when will YOU graze your way to Texas?

15
You're an idiot. Look at violent crime rates in Austin and then compare them to cities of similar size (roughly 750,000). Austin's crime rate is laughably low. Hipsters won't hurt you, though they might annoy you.

Since you've asked if other people have looked at crime rates, and then instead of telling us what the crime rates are point to "constant reports," why don't you do us a favor and look at the crime rates yourself.

Think before you post.

-Not an Austinite.

Does the Austin office have any incoming associates? How about deferred associates? (Remember, Fish deferred a third of their new hires for 12 months.)

A mjajority of people in the cities of Dallas and Houston voted for Obama. So did some of the suburbs of Dallas; the county I lived in voted 40:60 for McCain, but that was down from about 80:20 GOP eight years ago. It's not as bad in the DFW metroplex as you think. And, depending on where you live and work in DFW, you can generally get to work within about 30 minutes (and may be able to take the DART) .

Not as bad? Sounds like it is getting worse...I guess it is a perspective thing...mine is right.

22 = First relevant comment.

A majority of the lawyers will have their land-legs by year end? Who are you kidding? "Only" a three-month layoff would be a dream in this market.

I live in the Dallas area. Much of what's said about it is true -- overly conservative, stuck up, yada yada. But Austin is a little too much in love with itself, as well. I'd rather live in the Austin area purely for the scenery, not the political bent of its citizens.

17 has the most accurate comment so far.

21, you obviously haven't been to downtown Austin, because 6th street is full of roving gangs of thugs beating up hipsters for fun. If you can handle the traffic on 35, drive a few blocks away from downtown to Riverside and count how many police tapes and chalk body outlines you see. The actual crime statistics show violent crime on dramatic downward trends in Dallas and Houston over the last 10 years, while murder and assault and robbery rates in Austin, especially in the areas just east of downtown, are inexplicably rising fast.

The ship be sinking...

So Latham is closing down Fish's Texas office. Those bastards are relentless. How many more lives do you have to ruin before you'll be happy?

Keep Austin weird!!

17's statement is a little too generalized...it pertains only to central austin. there are lots of people who live in the suburbs, have larger houses, and drive 10 or 15 minutes on the freeways to work. Some of them even vote repuvlican. 17 has the stereotype correct, but it actually pertains only to a small percentage of Austinites.

I miss Future Elie.

Future Elie,

Based on your picture, it appears that you did not take the advice of ATL commenters and adopt an exercise plan. It also seems like you did not limit your intake of deep-fried chicken thighs.

Present-day Elie,

Heed the warnings of the future. This is some Terminator-type ish here. Present-day Elie, you still have a chance. You could get yourself down to a reasonable weight, proofread your posts and possibly make something of your life.

Oh, Future Elie, did your wife leave you after Lat fired you? Did Lat jack off on your man boobs before he fired you? Oh, oh... and if Kash looks like a 50-year old cancer survivor today, what does she look like in the future?

33 - So an entire office worth of people are losing their jobs and all you have to say about it is whether "Lat jack[ed] off on [Elie's] man boobs" -- Grow up! No wonder people hate lawyers...

Elie, you are an idiot. Saying that Austin is the same as Houston is like saying San Francisco is the same as LA, or that Washington, DC is the same as New York City. For one thing, Austin is about 1/5 the size of Houston or Dallas, and has a completely different concentration of industries. Austin's lawyers work a lot in IP and government relations, while Houston's attorneys work in oil and gas and Dallas attorneys work in banking and other matters. Even looking only at the legal climate, attorneys are looking at major professional changes when they move from Austin to another city.

Beyond that, Austin is one of the greatest cities in the world, with thriving local businesses and an unbelievable art and music scene. Houston and Dallas are also great towns, but they have none of Austin's charm or desirable local culture.

Also, normally I give you the benefit of the doubt when other commenters criticize you, but your ignorance to the superiority of Central Texas Barbecue goes to far.

Nationwide Layoff Watch: Elie is next.

@35 -- nice!

12= win

12= win

I'd give my left testicle to live in Austin. Anyone who has lived there would say the same. Dallas and Houston are not even comparable.

I had the $156,000 for a sweet house w/ a big lot 3 minutes biking to downtown, with tons of local businesses w/in walking/biking distance...

but i'm a conservative, and the hipsters are nauseating. however, the Obamanos bumper stickers are disappearing like snow under the Texas sun.

God bless the Longhorns.

Remember when taking the patent bar was a sure course to riches and fame? When having a "Science Background" was a license to print money?

Go Fish.

So only 2 IP firms worth a damn left in Austin now, Wilson Sonsini and McKool Smith.

Also, I second 24. I don't see that as a good trend.

33

I have heard that there is going to be a tremendous corn crop this year. More corn means cheaper feed. Cheaper feed means cheaper meat products. Cheaper meat products means Elie is not losing weight anytime soon.

And Elie- how about we get a new post? Just standing there watching the microwave is not going to make your lunch cook any faster.

39, maybe we can work out a deal...I need a left testicle.

First, quit jabbing at Pittsburgh. Philly is a cess pool.

Second, Dallas, is a cess pool as well. I'd say the move from Austin to Dallas would be like moving to Philly.

42, what about V&E or Fulbright?

So why close Austin and not Houston? I would think there is way more tech business to be earned in Austin than Houston, which is more heavy industry and oil.

35 back again.

While I'm on a roll, Elie, I hope you don't run into any Longhorn fans in a dark alley anytime soon. Between UT football, baseball, and basketball, there's plenty to keep sports fans occupied in Austin. Dallas may have the Cowboys, but even with that, Houston and Dallas have nothing on Memorial Stadium.

Hook 'em.

"a culturally progressive blue city in middle of a red state." WTF?

33 here.

One more thing Future Elie: I've watched enough cartoons and Sci-Fi shows to know that you are playing a dangerous game by traveling back in time and commenting on this blog. You have no idea how your actions today will affect the future. Have you been warning Elie about the typos he will make based on your knowledge of future events? No, that would be impossible, because based on your comments, it appears that your grammar has only gotten progressively worse. Tell me Future Elie, are the majority of African Americans from your future still woefully below the national average when it comes to test scores and graduation rates? Do we still need affirmative action in your future?

I think 33/50 amuses only himself...

austin is great for what it is--a small college town that is slightly bigger b/c the state capital is there. austin entertainment is centered around the university and its students (games and 6th/4th street). i moved to houston two years ago because it is more diversified in terms of people, work, and opportunities (culture, entertainment, and restaurants). looked at dallas too, but heard that it was too "old money" and that its economy was tanking.

liberal and cosmopolitan = metrosexual and confused

No 51, Future Elie is playing a dangerous game. Dangerous! His actions could very well unravel the very fabric of space and time. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about; I watched the X-Men cartoons back in the day when Cable and Bishop traveled back in time to fight Apocalypse.

If you didn't go to UT, living in Austin will make you want to slit your wrists from the nonstop Longhorn worship.

Everything in Texas, including Austin, is TTT. Those Fish lawyers are lucky to have the chance to leave that cultural hellhole for Fish offices in other cities.

These guys made uncanny predictions about Fish Austin a while ago. I'll be watching to see if their other predictions pan out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK0cUv3ba-o&NR=1&feature=fvwp

Yes, my wife did evetually leave me after Lat fired me. She stuck around for a while as I tried to squeeze myself back into Biglaw, but she eventually gave up hope as I begian to loose my hair, and Biglaw refused to ackowledge my existince.

Presdent-Day Elie, in June of 2011, you go to Beth Israel Medical Center to discuss getting a lapband surgery so that you can lose weight. Don't do it! You evetually get the surgery, and Lat fires you a month later after you make a post explaining why Obama;s election loss is unconstitutional via the19th Amendmet (it IS a brilliat post, thouhg). After the layoff, you begin to eat even more (spending an inordinate amount time at Gray's Papaya) and you burst the band o your stomach, sending you into even deeper depression.

ATLTip for the Future: In August of 2010, a company called Magnetic Power, Inc., goes public. Buy as much stock in this firm as you can. In January of 2012, the company has a press release informing the world that it has invented and patented the first commercially viable successful room temperature superconducter. This becomes a really big deal.

@55 FTW.

11 is exactly right in saying "Moving from Austin to Dallas is like moving from Portland (Oregon) to Phoenix," except that Austin-Dallas is only a 3 hour drive. 14 is a retard who needs to go back to Boston.

42, 46, there are IP boutiques in Austin who have bigger and better IP practices than the big-name players, though for major litigation it's the big-name players who are probably getting the case.

why is an IP firm like Fish hurting ITE? i thought IP was stable work.

46, 60.
I didn't mean to exclude the other IP players, but for the major litigation, only the Austin offices of Wilson Sonsini (Craig Tyler) and McKool Smith (Austin office just won $139 verdict against SAP) remain.
The soon to be closed Weil Austin office has people doing the Fed Cir appeal on the i4i/MSFT case.

14 here. I've never lived in Boston. But anyone who wants to live in Portland (Oregon) (or Seattle) instead of Phoenix should get their head examined. Portland and Seatlle tend to be damp, dark and wet. Our neighbor in Phoenix moved out of Seattle because they couldn't stand the depressing dark and dampness of the northwest.

Austin is a great town. No doubt about it. But it tends to have limited employment options, since it is a relatively smaller town and since UT grads tend to want to stay there after graduation. Dallas and San Antonio are pretty decent big cities with much to offer compared to most of the US.

How you like me now?
Don't mess with Texas!

Austin is great. Casino El Camino, Poke-E-Jo's. El Arroyo. Bull McCabes. Lovejoys (where you can STILL smoke a ciggy and drink a beer in indoor air-conditioned bliss - shhh, don't tell). Maudies.
Enjoy.

- 78704ver

Austin is great. Casino El Camino, Poke-E-Jo's. El Arroyo. Bull McCabes. Lovejoys (where you can STILL smoke a ciggy and drink a beer in indoor air-conditioned bliss - shhh, don't tell). Maudies.
Enjoy.

- 78704ever

And for those who prefer more of a hip, trendy, and conservative Dallas lifestyle, you can just go live by the Domain in North Austin, while still having access to all the Austin amenities that keeps the place so damn weird!

61 -

If a firm has too many employees and not enough work, there's a problem. Doesn't matter what kind of work it is. You can have more IP work than any firm on the planet, but if you have more employees than you need for that finite amount of work, guess what's gonna happen.

I've lived in Houston, Dallas, and Austin.

Houston and Dallas are cities with world-class economies. Austin is a little town with a good quality of life and a few interesting employers. I prefer living in Austin, but my career would be easier to advance if I moved back to Dallas or Houston. The key thing to understand is that the legal markets in Houston and Dallas are better because there are more Fortune 500 companies headquartered in each of them.

There are also better cultural and culinary opportunities in either Houston or Dallas than in Austin.

But, if you are driven to be outdoors, or if you are driven by the indie-film and music scene, or you like the small-town atmosphere, or if you like the political scene, Austin is a great place to have a life. Austin is also a town largely free of the pollution and crime that plague most of America's larger cities. And we have 300 days of sunshine per year.

The degree to which everyone in this town regards Mack Brown as the orange Jesus is a little tiring, but that's about the worst problem that we've got.

Orange Jesus...hillarious!

Austin is great, but I have to stand up for Dallas.

Dallas suburbs are sterile wastelands with nothing but chain restaurants, chain strip malls, and tract housing. However, urban Dallas is quite nice. Very similar to Austin, I might add, but without all the G*d d*mn hippies.

*Urban* Dallas (in the good parts, at least) is a great place to live, plenty of local indepedent restaurants, stores, and we can bike to downtown too.

Austin, while a great city, simply cannot support a large legal community. There really is no reason to have an Austin office unless you do local business in that city or are involved in State politics.

Houston and Dallas are the main commerce cities in the State and are 2 of the largest cities in the country.

Well said, 69. I've lived in Dallas and currently live in Austin. Your assessment is spot on.

I live in Plano, a large northern suburb of Dallas. Moved there from the midwest a few years ago and would never want to go back up north again.

Yes, it has quite a few chain restaurants. But almost all of the restaurants we eat at are locally owned. (And some of the chain restaurants we have, like Chuy's, are originally Austin-based anyways). We also have bike and walking trails just down the street, and can easily walk or bike to a grocery store and quite a few restaurants and bars, as well as a major shopping center. We can also jump on the DART or in the car and get down to the Knox/Henderson/McKinney district in about 25 minutes.

The housing prices in Plano are about 1/3 of the prices in the Park Cities area (Northern Dallas). and you can easily get a nice house with a pool for $300-$400K. And we also have about 300 sunny days a year, snow flurries only two or three days a year, no state income tax, a relatively low cost of living and the best residential real estate market (for large metro areas) in the country. Dallas-Fort Worth also is the fourth largest metro area in the US, has 24 or 25 Fortune 500 headquarters, has tons of concerts and sporting events (AA center, Cowboys stadium, old Cotton Bowl, Superpages Center, Nokia Theatre, Dr. Pepper Park, Pizza Hut Park, etc.), and two large airports with rapid rail service connections for one starting next year. The Dallas economy has been hurt, just like the US', but I'm already seeing some signs that the worst is behind us and Texas and Dallas will almost undoubtedly recover much quicker than almost anywhere else in the US.

Dallas-Fort Worth also has good museums and symphony orchestras. Fort Worth has the Kimbell Art Museum, which is generally acknowledged to be the best small art museum in the US, and a new $350 million+ Dallas Center for Performing Arts (with a separate theatre, opera house, park and performance hall) in the Dallas Arts District will open next month.

There ain't nothing wrong with Dallas.

Dude, Austin is significantly different from the rest of Texas. Though parts of Dallas are reminiscent of Austin, there is an ethos here that is unparalleled elsewhere in the state. The collective unconscious of the city is one that hums with vigor, creativity and a zest for life. Dallas is more money-focused, and I can't speak for Houston, having never lived there (and never will, because, gross). Certainly, one can survive in other parts of Texas, but to willingly leave Austin? You'd be crazy.

Austin is one of the best cities in the country for outdoor recreation - especially biking and wakeboarding - with large lakes and a lot of hills. It also doesn't have the high humidity of Houston and (most summers) the heat of Dallas. Houston and Dallas are generally indoor only cities. I grew up in NY and only someone from the Northeast can say Houston, Dallas, and Austin are comparable from a recreational perspective. Houston and Dallas have much more commercial acitivity and a larger business community, but almost everyone in Texas would rather live in Austin if they could have the same career options as in Dallas or Houston - unfortunately, there just aren't a lot of good jobs in Austin if you don't work for the state government or UT.

Austin sucks. It is the most overhyped and overrated city in the country.

Ok, so Eile knows nothing about TX and Austin and Dallas are both great places for the right people. Now, let's move on and actually have a discussion about Fish Austin closing and what its current attorneys are going to do for work. And, more to the point for me, are other Fish offices going to close?

I lived in Austin for 13 years and have been in Dallas for 25. Austin was a great place to be in the 1970's -- we used to go skinny dipping at "Hippie Hollow" on Lake Travis. The truth is that Austin today is nothing like Austin in 1975. There are probably close to a million more people living in the surrounding exurbs of Austin, and traffic is horrific. The Austin you see in "Dazed and Confused" is not the same. The quality of life is greatly over-exaggerated. There are some really great spots for music and food in Dallas -- you just have to look. Like New York or Chicago, part of the fun of living in a large city is finding these spots. (And, no I'm not equating Dallas/Houston with New York/Chicago, but you get my drift.)

Even when I was a student at UT, we always knew that you went to Dallas/Houston to get the jobs. Austin is for "drop-outs" -- imagine it like Venice Beach.

Sure, Austin is a great place to VISIT. Get a job in Dallas or Houston and go to Austin to see the Horns play on Saturdays.

The best city to live and work in the US is Chicago.

The best city to live and work in the US is Chicago.

The best city to live and work in the US is Chicago. Ask the Mob.

The best city to live and work in the US is Chicago. Ask the Mob.

As an Austinite now Chicagoan, I'd like to refer you to the following photo...

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/142/375174640_4cbedee3da.jpg?v=0

Austin is the only city in Texas I would ever live. period.

Austin is a great city for all you East Coast Liberals. You get to sit around and talk among your fellow bleeding heart liberals and carry on with blind idealism, yet get to live in a great fiscally conservative state that affords you the right to do such and to do such with a nice job, nice salary, and quality affordable living.

Austin is a great city for all you East Coast Liberals. You get to sit around and talk among your fellow bleeding heart liberals and carry on with blind idealism, yet get to live in a great fiscally conservative state that affords you the right to do such and to do such with a nice job, nice salary, and quality affordable living.

Dallas is a woman who will walk on you when you're down.

Dallas is great. The close-in urban neighborhoods are like Austin...only better.

The suburbs and exurbs, however, are generic wastelands like any other.

Agree with 85/86 in principle.

That said, I've been to Austin for a few wedding weekends, and after all of the "OMG! AUSTIN!!!" hype, I was hugely unimpressed. It'd be a fine place to go to college, but as far as trying to live and work there as a 20/30-something? Forget it.

And the traffic on 35 was absolutely unreal. It was LA-like.

If your frame of reference is limited to the filthy industrial and exurban hellhole that is Houston, I understand why someone might like Austin.

77 - you represent everything that is wrong with Austin.

Beckoned by the endless bullshit of "Austin is the greatest place in the world," people keep moving there in droves. It will be Dallas/[insert other overgrown shithole here] in 5 years. Maybe ten years ago it was unique and "different". Now, its just another used to be cool, but now way overpriced, overcrowded (with too many d-bags) and crime-ridden city like so many others. You already have the horrid traffic and absurd property taxes.

That should be 75, not 77 (which is spot on)

- 90

That should be 75, not 77 (which is spot on)

- 90

77 is absolutely correct. I lived in Austin for 3 years and couldn't get out of there fast enough. And the area's major private employer is a hell hole you don't want to enter!

i used to work at fish years ago ...

the boston "mafia" ran the firm then - almost into the ground

sounds like the same group of folks are still running things

my sources within fish indicate that the firm bids on fee-based litigatiion matters that are money losers for the firm

the firm also over-expanded

the firm also has hired some really high priced lateral partners who may have little or no client base

in total, the firm management has once again screwed things up

i would get out of fish asap before it goes under

93, are you saying Dell is a hellhole?
http://www.austin360.com/recreation/content/recreation/stories/tia/2009/0726tiaemployers.html

As someone who has lived in Austin, Dallas, and Houston the comments are interesting. Austin is substantially smaller than either Dallas or Houston. Comparing Austin-->Dallas to NYC-->Pitt is ridiculous. It is more the opposite. Austin is a tourist town.

Austin is beautiful, but suburban Austin is like suburban anything else in Texas. I also think Austin is the most segregated and least diverse of the large Texas cities. White yuppie hipster is not a diverse group, no matter how liberal they claim to be.

Also, urban Dallas and Houston are blue areas in a red state now as well. You just have to look at local elections. In terms of population, services, diversity, jobs, industry, etc. it is much better to live in Dallas or Houston. Because of the economic limitations in Austin, it has been hit much harder than Houston or Dallas by the recession.

is there any way we can stop perseverating on Dallas vs. Austin? what is going on at F&R? downscale for merger?

Any specific problems with potentially being a lawyer with Austin's largest private employer?

Weil's closing was not financially driven. The office was opened for a Supreme Court attorney that Weil then ran off. He is a great guy and great attorney. That left only one very junior partner in Austin who is an extremely ineffective manager with connections to a single client (the subject of this article.)

He did not decide to move to Houston at all. Weil ordered him to work from Houston. He is leaving his family in Austin and will show up for work in Houston occasionally - presumably less than he did in Austin - which wasn't very much. I don't know why the firm thinks he'll be a better manager reporting to an office 180 miles from where his family lives. Part of the problem in Austin was that he was never in the office and refused to deal with personnell issues.

For instance - he never managed a first year associate who decided to "work" from home most of the time, and did not want any Leiman bankruptcy work because that attorney did not want to "be that busy."

Furthermore, despite what people here might say after reading the "letter," IP attorneys were offered Houston and nothing else. The two corporate attorneys were offered Dallas. The appellate attorneys were offered New York with the exception of one who was also offered Houston. There is one IP attorney who had any interest in the Silicon Valley office - but it was clear that attorney was leaving before the office closing came down. That attorney started a new position the day after their last day at Weil. (We all hope that they have plenty of kleenex and book cases there.) As far as know - that attorney is the only one so far who quit that has a job.

Both Counsels were given the opportunity to work from home - probably because Weil cannot do without the IP of Counsel who could not have moved to Houston.

Being told to move to New York, Houston, or Dallas to keep your job would be like Weil asking its NYC attorneys to move to Albany - its in the same state right? Should not be too much of a problem. Well, wrong. Other than the aforementioned attorney - most at Weil Austin cannot move. There are many single parents with custody agreements. There are many married couples with a spouse with a job in Austin. The offer from Weil was a cold one anyway. Many were discouraged not to make the move.

Most of the good associates have left. One good appellate asssocate will move to Houston because of financial reasons. The rest of them have quit. The couple of really good iP associates left - and the IP group will be left with the dregs - people who won't move to Houston - but will take the partner's lead and "commute" there. It makes snense - if the partner can get away with occasional face time in Housotn - why not these associates? Especially given one of them never comes to the office anyway and avoids work if at all possible.

According toTexas law - being offered a positionin another city is a layoff and you are entitled to collect unemployment. I should know - I am doing it.