Fish & Richardson to Open Administrative Hub in Minneapolis Office

Fish & Richardson announced today that it will open an Administrative Hub in its current office space in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where the firm has had an office for 20 years. The new Administrative Hub will house the core operations of Fish's Finance & Accounting, Information Technology, and Human Resources functions, as well as part of its Patent Practice Systems group. A total of 130 positions will be based in the Administrative Hub, 80 of which are moving from other offices.

Several of Fish's administrative functions - including Human Resources and part of its Patent Practice Systems group - have been centralized in the firm's Twin Cities office for many years, so formalizing an official "hub" was both a strategic and evolutionary decision for the firm.

"In today's competitive legal environment, clients expect their law firms to continue to deliver high quality, with better service and results, at increasingly better value. Our new Administrative Hub will enable us to provide better value by working more efficiently and reducing costs," said Peter Devlin, President of Fish & Richardson. "We’ve been engaged for years in reorganizing and restructuring our support staff across the firm, so the opening of our Hub will not involve any staff reductions. Instead, by centralizing these functions we will be able to implement best practices across several different departments and create even more consistency in the quality of our services."

All affected employees will be offered the opportunity to relocate to the Twin Cities. "We hope many of our employees will choose to join us in Twin Cities," Devlin added.

Employees who choose not to move will keep their jobs in their current office until March 31, 2015, and will be offered a generous severance package based on tenure if they stay through March 31.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul is one of the best places to do business and a great place to live, so we hope every affected employee will decide to move to our new Administrative Hub. This region has a skilled workforce, affordable housing, top-notch educational institutions, and deep cultural resources," added Richard Anderson, Chief Operating Officer for Fish & Richardson, who is also a principal in the firm's Twin Cities office.

This strategic decision by Fish & Richardson to consolidate its administrative hub in the Greater MSP region reinforces the Minneapolis St. Paul region's strength in professional and business services to global business headquarters and enterprises," added Michael Langley, CEO of GREATER MSP (Minneapolis Saint Paul Regional Economic Development Partnership).

All affected positions will be moved by the end of March 2015. Fish will invest approximately $4 million to establish the administrative hub and anticipates the firm will save up to $3 million per year once the project is completed.

"We made this decision after careful consideration and with the best interests of our entire firm in mind. We know that change is difficult, but we are doing this to stay competitive while keeping good jobs at our firm," said Devlin.