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Hi friends,

I'm currently at a biglaw firm in DC doing litigation and will be clerking on the 3rd Circuit in the fall, and after my clerkship, my wife and I are considering moving to San Antonio to be near her sister. What is the legal market like in San Antonio? I know there are several big firms there, but what kind of law do those firms focus on?

I'm also interested in working for the state government, such as the state AG, and I'm wondering if the Texas AG has offices in San Antonio, and what offices it might have there (criminal, civil, SG, etc). If anyone has any insight into the SA legal market, I would appreciate it!

Thanks

There are very few big firms in San Antonio and the ones that do have offices (Akin Gump, Norton Rose, e.g.) are there simply because a partner or two has setup shop in San Antonio because of personal reasons or a client in San Antonio. Simply put, there is very little high-level litigation going on in San Antonio. There is no shortage of insurance, immigration, and family law, however. I understand that you are moving for personal reasons, but don't get the idea that DC credentials will have a lot of pull. San Antonio (I'm in Austin) is very insular and Spanish-speaking abilities will be a big plus. Simply put, are you going to be able to get clients in San Antonio? Otherwise it's gonna be tough to convince Akin to get additional office space in San Antonio fr you when all your work will be flowing from Dallas and you'll be traveling all the time.

On the government side, from what I understand, the AG has some division offices in San Antonio (family, child custody, etc.).

Good Luck!

Basil is right. The BigLaw market in San Antonio is effectively nonexistent. If at all possible, I'd recommend looking in Austin. Austin doesn't have a huge market, but still orders of magnitude bigger, and it's really not that far away.

QContinuum wrote:Basil is right. The BigLaw market in San Antonio is effectively nonexistent. If at all possible, I'd recommend looking in Austin. Austin doesn't have a huge market, but still orders of magnitude bigger, and it's really not that far away.

I'd say look into Austin as well, but SA and Austin are not as close as they once were. It routinely takes 2.5–3 hours in and around rush hour to make the commute, where it can take about 80 minutes on a Saturday morning. Austin is the clear choice as an outsider, but it's still going to be real tough. What connections do you have to Texas?

BasilHallward wrote:

QContinuum wrote:Basil is right. The BigLaw market in San Antonio is effectively nonexistent. If at all possible, I'd recommend looking in Austin. Austin doesn't have a huge market, but still orders of magnitude bigger, and it's really not that far away.

I'd say look into Austin as well, but SA and Austin are not as close as they once were. It routinely takes 2.5–3 hours in and around rush hour to make the commute, where it can take about 80 minutes on a Saturday morning. Austin is the clear choice as an outsider, but it's still going to be real tough. What connections do you have to Texas?

OP says:

GiveMeLiberty wrote:my wife and I are considering moving to San Antonio to be near her sister.

If they plan to live with the sister, or have the sister provide childcare services, then of course I agree that working in Austin wouldn't be practical. But if it's just more of a general "be closer to family" thing, IMO Austin's plenty close enough - an 80-minute drive would make it very feasible to make frequent/routine weekend visits to see the sister, or vice versa. I could see Houston being more of a hassle - a 3.5-hour drive each way is probably long enough as a practical matter to limit visits to once per month or so.

QContinuum wrote:

BasilHallward wrote:

QContinuum wrote:Basil is right. The BigLaw market in San Antonio is effectively nonexistent. If at all possible, I'd recommend looking in Austin. Austin doesn't have a huge market, but still orders of magnitude bigger, and it's really not that far away.

I'd say look into Austin as well, but SA and Austin are not as close as they once were. It routinely takes 2.5–3 hours in and around rush hour to make the commute, where it can take about 80 minutes on a Saturday morning. Austin is the clear choice as an outsider, but it's still going to be real tough. What connections do you have to Texas?

OP says:

GiveMeLiberty wrote:my wife and I are considering moving to San Antonio to be near her sister.

If they plan to live with the sister, or have the sister provide childcare services, then of course I agree that working in Austin wouldn't be practical. But if it's just more of a general "be closer to family" thing, IMO Austin's plenty close enough - an 80-minute drive would make it very feasible to make frequent/routine weekend visits to see the sister, or vice versa. I could see Houston being more of a hassle - a 3.5-hour drive each way is probably long enough as a practical matter to limit visits to once per month or so.

That's fair. Just strange that OP thought of San Antonio as a feasible legal market. Not even Texans consider this a viable legal market. Even Fort Worth has a larger presence (Kelly Hart, Winstead, Cantey Hangar). I'd have to ponder on El Paso and Midland/Odessa (when O&G is going well) before giving San Antonio a leg up. Everyone has a personal decisions to make and I definitely respect that, but going from a DC litigation shop to a Circuit clerkship in the northeast, and then to San Antonio is pretty close to career suicide.

BasilHallward wrote:That's fair. Just strange that OP thought of San Antonio as a feasible legal market. Not even Texans consider this a viable legal market. Even Fort Worth has a larger presence (Kelly Hart, Winstead, Cantey Hangar). I'd have to ponder on El Paso and Midland/Odessa (when O&G is going well) before giving San Antonio a leg up. Everyone has a personal decisions to make and I definitely respect that, but going from a DC litigation shop to a Circuit clerkship in the northeast, and then to San Antonio is pretty close to career suicide.

It's puzzling, for sure. My speculation would be that OP isn't from Texas and has never previously had any reason to investigate the Texas legal market. And San Antonio's a decent-sized city, so - knowing nothing else about Texas - it wouldn't be unreasonable to think it might host a decent BigLaw market.

Frankly, given OP's credentials and experience, they really ought to go to Houston or Dallas. I feel even Austin would limit their career growth. But at least Austin wouldn't be unreasonable if they can get it (which of course isn't guaranteed, because lots of folks want to live in Austin and there's a very limited supply of BigLaw spots).

This is all helpful. Thanks a lot. It's accurate that I don't know much about the SA (or Texas) legal market and just assumed that given SA's size it would have accompanying legal jobs. That could be inaccurate though.

Long-term, I'm not interested in staying at a big firm for more than 5 years or so, and would like to transition into criminal work, state government, family law, etc., so from that perspective the lack of biglaw isn't a major problem. Additionally, we're choosing between SA and central Florida (where I grew up and my wife's and my parents live), so the options are Tampa/Orlando or SA. Without knowing much about either market, I'm assuming Tampa and SA would have similar legal markets given their similar city size and knowing that neither is a hot spot for litigation like DC, NYC, Chicago, etc. In short, I know going from DC to either FL or SA is going to be limiting for my career, but we want to be closer to family.

What are the top boutique firms in San Antonio? It doesn't sound like the biglaw scene is popping:

The out-of-state [biglaw] firms with San Antonio offices are Clark Hill (known as Clark Hill Strasburger in Texas), Akerman, Dykema Gossett, Norton Rose Fulbright and Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart.

. . .

Additionally, a number of Am Law 200 firms born in Texas do maintain San Antonio offices, including Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld; Haynes and Boone; Jackson Walker; Bracewell; and Winstead.

From this late-2019 article in Texas Lawyer.

Here is a list of San Antonio law firms by total number of local lawyers:

1. Langley & Banack (70)
2. Dykema (52)
3. Jackson Walker LLP (42)
4. Norton Rose Fulbright (41)
5. Clark Hill (38)
6. Davidson Troilo Ream & Garza PC (24)
7. Brock Guerra Strandmo Dimaline Jones PC (23)
8. Pipkin Law (21)
9. Rosenthal Pauerstein Sandoloski Agather LLP (20)
10. Thornton Biechlin Reynolds & Guerra LC (20)
11. Cacheaux Cavazos & Newton LLP (18)
12. Hornberger Fuller Garza & Cohen Inc. (16)
13. Naman Howell Smith & Lee PLLC (16)
14. Pulman, Cappuccio & Pullen LLP (16)
15. Cokinos | Young (16)
16. Golden Steves & Gordon LLP (16)
17. Uhl Fitzsimons Burton Wolff & Rangel PLLC (14)
18. Santoyo Wehmeyer PC (14)
19. Elder Bray & Bankler PC (13)
20. Martin & Drought PC (13)
21. Chamberlain Hrdlicka (13)
22. Haynes and Boone LLP (13)
23. Bracewell LLP (12)
24. Davis Cedillo & Mendoza Inc. (11)
25. Kreager Mitchell PLLC (11)