Morrison & Foerster has expanded into Texas with an office in Austin, hiring two intellectual property partners—one from Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman and one from DLA Piper—and a Pillsbury Winthrop corporate partner.

The California-founded firm has been working on an Austin office for three years because of the city’s large technology and life sciences sectors and base of emerging companies and venture capital firms. But with the move into Austin, announced Monday, the firm joins a number of Big Law firms that have opened offices in the hot Austin market over the last several months.