BakerHostetler has hired a 10-lawyer transactional team from Locke Lord to open an office in Austin, its third in Texas and 18th overall. 

The incoming team is led by partner Cynthia Bast and will bolster 1,000-lawyer BakerHostetler’s affordable housing and real estate capabilities, the firm said. Bast will serve as partner-in-charge of the new office, which will open 1 January 2025 and join its other Texas locations in Houston and Dallas. 

BakerHostetler chairman, Paul Schmidt, said the Austin launch marked “an important step” in the firm’s corporate and Texas growth strategies. 

“Since 2019, we have added more than 120 lawyers in Dallas and Houston,” Schmidt said. “Austin is one of the nation’s fastest-growing metropolitan areas and is home to important employers and clients. This group of lawyers will strengthen our presence in Texas and expand our real estate transactional capabilities nationwide.”

In addition to Bast the Locke Lord team includes partners Rick Morrow, Victoria de Lisle, Chris Schrauff, Matthew Borah and Raj Bandla, and attorneys Chris Richardson, Sam Hagerty, Kim Loesche and Christianna Goldman Smith. Current BakerHostetler M&A and private equity partner Mark Ramzy will also join the incoming team in launching the Austin office. 

Law.com reported that the team’s departure from Locke Lord had been triggered by client conflicts that will arise through the firm’s merger with Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders, which is set to go live at the start of next year. The group represents owners and borrowers in affordable housing transactions, while Troutman mostly represents lenders in such deals.

Bast, along with current BakerHostetler partner Nathan Ware, will co-lead BakerHostetler’s new community development practice team, which will bring together current BakerHostetler attorneys who have affordable housing, community development and tax credit capabilities with the skillsets of the new attorneys joining the firm from Locke Lord. 

The firm said that, together, the group will create a “one-stop destination for clients looking for counsel on all types and forms of federal, state and local tax credit or governmental financing options, including affordable housing tax credits and incentives, historic tax credits, new markets tax credits and renewable energy tax credits”.

Cleveland, Ohio-founded BakerHostetler has been in Texas since the late 1980s, when it opened in Houston. The firm set up shop in Dallas in 2020 with a team of 16 lawyers hired from rivals including Kirkland & Ellis and Winston & Strawn and has since grown the office to around 55 lawyers, according to its website, alongside the 75 lawyers the firm has in Dallas. 

The firm’s launch in Austin comes as the city enjoys the highest GDP growth among major metropolitan areas in the US and cements its status as one of the country’s major tech hubs. The city’s other major industries include healthcare and hospitality, which align with focus industries for BakerHostetler. 

The firm intends to grow its Austin office into a full-service offering, Law.com reported. 

Austin’s booming economy has proved a draw for a number of Big Law firms in recent years, including Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Morrison & Foerster, McDermott Will & Emery and O’Melveny & Myers.