Barry Burgdorf has left his job as chief operating officer of a biotech venture capital firm in Dallas to return to Austin as a special counsel with Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman.
Burgdorf, who comes from Remeditex Ventures, joined Pillsbury on July 24. Previously, he was general counsel for the University of Texas System.
At Pillsbury, Burgdorf will do corporate and transactional work in the life science, technology and education practices. He said he is excited to practice with a "deep and talented team" at the firm.
Burgdorf said he had been commuting on almost a daily basis from his home in Austin to Remeditex offices in Dallas, and was ready to live in Austin full time with his family. He said he started talking to Pillsbury after Andrew Strong, a Pillsbury partner in Houston and Austin, found out he was interested in opportunities in Austin.
Burgdorf said he and Strong became friends while he was GC at the University of Texas and Strong was GC of Texas A&M University.
"Barry builds on our substantial biotech practice, and he supercharges our education practice," Strong said in a statement. "With the connections between academia and biotech growing, he helps us build on those relationships, particularly as they commercialize their inventions."
Burgdorf was GC and vice chancellor of the University of Texas System from 2005 until 2013, when he left to serve as outside general counsel and strategic adviser to Vucomp.com, a Plano company that designed systems for breast cancer imaging, and also worked as a partner in Beatty Bangle Strama in Austin. In 2015, he moved to Remeditex, the VC firm. Earlier in his career, he was of counsel and a partner at Vinson & Elkins.
Pillsbury has 20 lawyers in its Austin office.