Austin-based Mitratech to lay off 83 employees, expand in India

Austin-based legal software company Mitratech has plans to lay off 83 employees, according to documents filed with the Texas Workforce Commission on Wednesday.

Mitratech CEO Jason Parkman said the layoffs are part of the company's larger plan to build "a significant new presence in India" for engineering and support.

Mitratech, which offers software that is used by legal departments for record managing, has 368 total employees, with 170 based in Austin. Parkman said 100 employees will be laid off across the globe, with 83 in the U.S.

Fifty-seven of those layoffs are out of Austin, according to Parkman.

"All employees know what's happening to them today," Parkman said, adding that layoffs will take place over the next six months. "Austin will still be, through all of this, our largest office."

The company, which was founded in 1987 in Los Angeles, opened an Austin office in 2012 to tap into the area's talent base and tech community. Mitratech has since made Austin its headquarters.

"Just as when we moved from Los Angeles to Austin, we have to look at the best way to approach the business operation," Parkman said.

Mitratech reported that the layoffs are part of a larger restructuring of the company, according to a WARN letter sent to the Texas Workforce Commission on Wednesday. A WARN letter, which stands for Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, is a federally mandated notice employers must provide to state governments in the event of major layoffs.

A majority of the layoffs are software engineers, according to the letter. Other jobs include technical support engineers, business analysts and software development managers.

A spokeswoman for the company said Mitratech plans to hire the same number of employees back in India and has plans to grow even more there.

Mitratech has grown through acquiring other software makers. In August, Mitratech acquired its eighth company, San Francisco-based ThinkSmart, which sells workflow automation software for handling legal work.

Mitratech was previously backed by Austin’s Vista Equity Partners, and was then acquired by TA Associates Management, a Boston private equity firm. It is now owned by HgCapital.