Intellectual Property, Layoffs

Fish & Richardson Could Cut Its Corporate Department. All of It.

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Sources report that Fish & Richardson will cut its entire corporate department as of January 1, 2010.
To be fair, Fish & Richardson is more known for its IP work. Its corporate department is relatively small. But cutting an entire practice group seems like an extreme cost cutting measure. The firm has already cut associate salaries and laid off associates.
There are a few things we don’t know. Although our sources tell us the corporate department will be cut firm-wide, our sources are clustered in only one Fish office. We don’t know if corporate associates will be offered other jobs in the firm as of 1/1/10, and we don’t know if the move is being precipitated by a large group of Fish corporate partners leaving.
That’s because the Fish associates we spoke with were informed of the news in a curious way. Details after the jump.


You’d expect an internal memo or a press release from Fish & Richardson to announce this decision. But our sources report they learned of the news over the telephone:

The firm’s president, Peter Devlin, disseminated the information via individual voicemails to every employee, rather than his usual emails. Guess someone is afraid of employees forwarding emails to ATL???

If the firm decided to communicate over the phone in order to avoid Above the Law, it shouldn’t be surprising that the firm did not respond to our multiple requests for comment.
The desire to avoid media detection could be one reason there are so many unanswered questions about what precisely is going at the firm. But you can’t discontinue an entire practice group quietly.
We’ll keep you posted as more information comes to light.
Earlier: Nationwide Salary Cut Watch: Fish & Richardson Scales Back Salaries
Fish & Richardson Puts One-Third Of Its Incoming Associates On Ice

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