CHICAGO — Even as large Chicago law firms, including Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal and Jenner & Block, are pushing some lawyers out the door, they say they’re growing by hiring new attorneys.

A week before news broke on Oct. 15 that Sonnenschein planned to cut 25 lawyers, the firm announced that it was opening a Zurich, Switzerland, office with two new partners and, in September, it said that it was expanding its patent litigation team with two new lawyers in Palo Alto, Calif.