Hawley Troxell Ennis & Hawley LLP law firm plans to close its Spokane office at the end of this month, due to a gradual exodus of attorneys in the last year, says Tom Mortell, co-managing partner of the Boise-based firm.

The move comes just 14 months after Hawley Troxell completed its acquisition of Witherspoon Kelley, a 138-year-old Spokane law firm that also operated offices in Coeur d'Alene, and in Yakima, Washington.

"We went from 24 to zero in a year," Mortell says of the Spokane operation. "I dearly love many of those people, and I got to be good friends with a bunch of them, so it just made this really hard."

Hawley Troxell plans to vacate its offices on the 11th floor of the U.S. Bank Building, at 422 W. Riverside, by the end of March. The rest of the company's six offices, including the former Witherspoon Kelley operations in Coeur d'Alene and Yakima, will remain open.

Hawley Troxell's Spokane employees gradually began to leave the full-service law firm within the first few months of the Witherspoon Kelley acquisition and continued throughout the remainder of the year.

"When ... it was clear we weren't going to have a core of attorneys that we needed there, it became clear we would just close the office," he explains.

Throughout the year, Boise leaders came to understand there were some fundamental differences for the vision and direction of the law firm between the leadership team in Boise and Spokane managers, says Mortell. 

"Our Spokane partners had one view of how the firm should be run and what vision it should have, and leadership ... in Boise had a different view," says Mortell. "We worked hard to reconcile those two philosophies, and in the end, we couldn't do it."

About seven attorneys from the Spokane office will stay onboard in remote positions until transitioning to other firms, he says. Hawley Troxell's Spokane clients will continue to be served from the company's other offices. In addition to Boise, Coeur d'Alene, and Yakima, the firm has offices in Reno, Nevada, and the Idaho cities of Driggs, Idaho Falls, and Pocatello.

Hawley Troxell's remaining workforce includes 210 total employees, including about 90 attorneys companywide, he says.

"Although this didn't work out, we feel like we're still in a really good position," Mortell says.