{"id":138109,"date":"2025-12-04T08:32:44","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T16:32:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/12\/04\/another-biglaw-firm-takes-the-texas-plunge\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T08:32:44","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T16:32:44","slug":"another-biglaw-firm-takes-the-texas-plunge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/12\/04\/another-biglaw-firm-takes-the-texas-plunge\/","title":{"rendered":"Another Biglaw Firm Takes the Texas Plunge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fennemore Craig is officially putting on its boots and growing in Texas. The Am Law 200 firm announced a merger<\/a> with San Antonio labor & employment boutique Schmoyer Reinhard, bringing all 11 of the boutique\u2019s attorneys into the fold and boosting Fennemore\u2019s office tally to 23.<\/p>\n

The move marks the latest step in Fennemore\u2019s growth strategy. CEO James Goodnow said the firm\u2019s expansion spurt made one thing painfully clear: their labor and employment practice wasn\u2019t keeping pace.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had success in growth, but as we\u2019ve done that, we realized that there were some practice areas that we needed to fortify,\u201d Goodnow explained, noting that while Fennemore already has strong L&E talent, \u201cwe didn\u2019t see the labor and employment bench growing at the same clip\u201d as the rest of the firm.<\/p>\n

Enter San Antonio\u2019s labor & employment firm, Schmoyer Reinhard.<\/p>\n

Not only are Shannon Schmoyer and Christine Reinhard bringing their specialized expertise, but they\u2019re also bringing a client roster stuffed with national corporations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe majority of our client base is large, nationwide corporations, and we\u2019ve just been super, super fortunate,\u201d Schmoyer said, clearly aware that in Biglaw, nothing says \u201cmatch made in heaven\u201d quite like a stacked client list.<\/p>\n

Reinhard highlighted a different advantage for her team: joining a firm with the tech horsepower to push forward on innovation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith technology, the advent of AI and being able to do that ethically, responsibly in the way we should, that\u2019s what\u2019s exciting,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s not something that you can necessarily do as a small firm \u2014 at least not easily.\u201d<\/p>\n

Translation: AI is great, but it costs money. Fennemore has money. Sold.<\/p>\n

The merger also reflects a deliberate strategic move into Texas \u2014 a state that has become the hottest legal market in the country for firms trying to plant flags, rack up revenue, and maybe get a decent plate of brisket along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cTexas has been at the top of our potential expansion markets for some time now,\u201d Goodnow said. \u201cAnd you look within Texas and you see that San Antonio, in fact, is one of the fastest growing cities. And if you look even deeper than that, you see that San Antonio doesn\u2019t have the same level of Am Law 200 firms in it, so it\u2019s not as saturated as a Dallas or a Houston.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words: ripe for the picking.<\/p>\n

With this move, Fennemore continues its transformation from regional mainstay to national player, and if Texas is any indication, the firm has no plans to slow down.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Another Biglaw Firm Takes the Texas Plunge<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(Image via Shutterstock)\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fennemore Craig is officially packing its boots and heading to Texas. The Am Law 200 firm announced a merger<\/a> with San Antonio labor & employment boutique Schmoyer Reinhard, bringing all 11 of the boutique\u2019s attorneys into the fold and boosting Fennemore\u2019s office tally to 23.<\/p>\n

The move marks the latest step in Fennemore\u2019s growth strategy. CEO James Goodnow said the firm\u2019s expansion spurt made one thing painfully clear: their labor and employment practice wasn\u2019t keeping pace.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had success in growth, but as we\u2019ve done that, we realized that there were some practice areas that we needed to fortify,\u201d Goodnow explained, noting that while Fennemore already has strong L&E talent, \u201cwe didn\u2019t see the labor and employment bench growing at the same clip\u201d as the rest of the firm.<\/p>\n

Enter San Antonio\u2019s labor & employment firm, Schmoyer Reinhard.<\/p>\n

Not only are Shannon Schmoyer and Christine Reinhard bringing their specialized expertise, but they\u2019re also bringing a client roster stuffed with national corporations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe majority of our client base is large, nationwide corporations, and we\u2019ve just been super, super fortunate,\u201d Schmoyer said, clearly aware that in Biglaw, nothing says \u201cmatch made in heaven\u201d quite like a stacked client list.<\/p>\n

Reinhard highlighted a different advantage for her team: joining a firm with the tech horsepower to push forward on innovation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith technology, the advent of AI and being able to do that ethically, responsibly in the way we should, that\u2019s what\u2019s exciting,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s not something that you can necessarily do as a small firm \u2014 at least not easily.\u201d<\/p>\n

Translation: AI is great, but it costs money. Fennemore has money. Sold.<\/p>\n

The merger also reflects a deliberate strategic move into Texas \u2014 a state that has become the hottest legal market in the country for firms trying to plant flags, rack up revenue, and maybe get a decent plate of brisket along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cTexas has been at the top of our potential expansion markets for some time now,\u201d Goodnow said. \u201cAnd you look within Texas and you see that San Antonio, in fact, is one of the fastest growing cities. And if you look even deeper than that, you see that San Antonio doesn\u2019t have the same level of Am Law 200 firms in it, so it\u2019s not as saturated as a Dallas or a Houston.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words: ripe for the picking.<\/p>\n

With this move, Fennemore continues its transformation from regional mainstay to national player, and if Texas is any indication, the firm has no plans to slow down.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fennemore Craig is officially putting on its boots and growing in Texas. The Am Law 200 firm announced a merger with San Antonio labor & employment boutique Schmoyer Reinhard, bringing all 11 of the boutique\u2019s attorneys into the fold and boosting Fennemore\u2019s office tally to 23. The move marks the latest step in Fennemore\u2019s growth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":138082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-RZogoR.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}