Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman plans to send its back office functions, including information technology, finance, new client intake, and word processing to Nashville by next year. The move, announced Tuesday, puts Pillsbury on a path blazed by Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, which has housed administrative staff and low-cost lawyers in Wheeling, W.V., for almost a decade, and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, which has been sending non-legal work and document review to an office in Dayton, Ohio, since last year. “It’s a competitive marketplace,” said Pillsbury chair James M. Rishwain. “Law firms need to find better ways to add value to clients in a very difficult economy.” The Nashville office will ultimately employ 150 people, Mr. Rishwain said. Pillsbury chief financial officer Sean Whelan and chief information officer Martin Metz will be relocating to Nashville to run the center. The firm plans to offer current employees an opportunity to move to Nashville, will begin recruiting locally in March to fill any remaining positions, and expects to have the new office up and running by fall 2012, Mr. Whelan said.
Also this week, O’Melveny & Myers said it will eliminate about 75 staff positions nationwide. The work will now be handled by Williams Lea, an outsourcing company O’Melveny has used for 12 years, the firm said. “We continue to evaluate and restructure our staff functions to reflect technology driven efficiencies and practice model changes,” said George Demos, the firm’s chief operating officer, in a statement.
