Clifford Chance Houston Managing Partner Leaves for Boutique

Devika Kornbacher, the co-chair of Clifford Chance’s global tech group and managing partner of the firm’s Houston office, has stepped down to join an Austin boutique.

Kornbacher, a technology and intellectual property lawyer, said in an interview that she joined the 16-member boutique now known as Huggins Reddien Kornbacher to return to “hands-on law” and work for a firm handling tech transactions.

“Now I can be on a nimble law platform with the technological tools that can help scale me up, with a team where every lawyer touches tech,” said Kornbacher, who plans to focus on tech commercialization and data law practice areas. “I can be an enabler of innovation as a lawyer.”

Kornbacher is leaving Clifford Chance after she helped the UK firm open its Houston office in the Texas Tower in June 2023. Under her guidance, the firm expanded its headcount from 10 to 44 attorneys and added 24 business professionals today.

“We thank Devika for her contributions and wish her the best for the future,” a Clifford Chance spokesperson said by email.

Kornbacher joined Clifford Chance in 2022 after working for nearly 16 years at Vinson & Elkins in Houston and New York. Previously, she served as global tech and sourcing counsel from 2011 to 2012 for British energy giant BP.

Boutique law firms have increasingly won legal work from tech companies in Texas and across the globe. While Big Law has promoted full-service business models, Kornbacher said she believes that the legal market has shifted, especially with the adoption of artificial intelligence tools, to smaller firms providing “unbundled” services.

“Clients are no longer enamored by the one-stop shop,” she said. “They are looking for who’s the best firm for this one thing.”

Paul Huggins and Jay Reddien, who practiced together at Silicon Valley’s Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati office in Austin, founded what is now called Huggins Reddien Kornbacher in 2017.

The firm has represented a range of clients including Apptronik, the AI startup developing humanoid robotics in Austin, where Huggins serves as outside general counsel.

Clients “need and appreciate counsel that understands the technology at a deep level and can operate at the same pace as their ambitions,” Reddien said. “Devika will help us supercharge our mission.”