International law firm K&L Gates LLP says it will close its Spokane office by the end of the year.

Philip J. Carstens is the administrative partner of the firm’s office here, located on the third floor of a downtown building at 618 W. Riverside that’s anchored by Intermountain Community Bank.

 In a list of the largest law firms here that the Journal published in March, K&L Gates ranked seventh, with 16 attorneys and 31 staff members, which was down slightly from a year earlier. It describes itself as a full-service U.S. and international law firm, with local practice areas including corporate, transactional, litigation, intellectual property, patents, trademarks, and municipal law and finance.

It opened its Spokane office in 1980.

Carstens declined to talk in detail about the office’s future here. However, a spokesman for the firm located at its Pittsburgh headquarters said in a written statement that it decided to close the Spokane office “based on a combination of factors that include a lack of synergy of the office’s practice areas with those of the firm’s platform, the approaching expiration of the office lease, and a limited market for lateral lawyers who synergize with the firm’s platform.”

He also said in the statement, “While there is no definitive timeline at this point, the firm expects that the office will fully cease operations on or by Dec. 31, 2015.”

K&L Gates employs more than 2,000 lawyers in 48 cities on five continents. K&L Gates’ website says firm’s revenues have exceeded $1 billion in each of the last five years.

The firm represents a variety of global corporations, growth and middle-market companies, capital markets participants and entrepreneurs in every major industry group as well as public sector entities, educational institutions, philanthropic organizations and individuals, its website says.