(This article originally appeared in slightly different form in the Am Law Daily.)

NEW YORK CITY—Law firms are reducing the square footage they allot per attorney when signing new leases, and increasingly are looking for flexible, more economical spaces in keeping with the corporate clients they serve, according to commercial real estate industry analysts.

Additionally, more law firms also are having professional real estate directors and chief operating officers—including accountants—make cost-driven choices about office space, taking the decisions out of the partners' hands.  As a result, square footage per lawyer is declining and individual offices are giving way to larger, communal working areas and multipurpose spaces.

“They are facing pressure to be lean and mean,” says Sherry Cushman, executive managing director and leader of the global legal sector advisory group at Cushman & Wakefield.

On average, law firms occupy two or three times as much space per employee as most other businesses, including banking, insurance and technology. But that is changing. “Twenty years ago, if they walked into a beautiful office, [clients] would say, 'Wow, my lawyers must be smart.' But now they walk in and they don't want to say, 'Wow, this is why my fees are so high,'” says Cushman, whose law firm clients include Baker & Hostetler, Shook Hardy & Bacon and Clifford Chance.

C&W will release its 2014 National Benchmark Survey in the first quarter of next year, in which it will provide real estate statistics based on its survey results from 300 law firms. But already some trends can be seen.

The average national law firm spends 6.2% of gross revenue on real estate expenses, according to C&W's 2013 benchmark survey. That is two or three percentage points less than the share spent about 10 years ago, Cushman says, and firms are trying to reduce it further.

The average ratio of space per lawyer is 823 square feet, but that is based on many older leases initiated when firms were anticipating growth. (Most law firm leases are for 10-15 years, with one or two options to renew at five-year intervals.) The actual square footage per lawyer if they filled every seat is more like 686 square feet, according to Cushman. Most law firms are targeting 600 square feet per lawyer with serious consideration being given to single-size offices for all attorneys, she adds.

JLL's annual law firm survey released last fall similarly indicated a downsizing trend in space per lawyer, the Am Law Daily reports. It will release its own survey results next month.

Thomas Doughty, international director and cochair of JLL's global law firm practice group, says many firms are doubling up their associates and going to only two office sizes, one for partners and one for associates. In New York, some law firms that were in Midtown are moving or are considering moves Downtown—where lower rents are available—or to Midtown West, he says, where they also are trying new layouts.

For example, Jones Day announced in November it would move its office from East 41st street to Brookfield Place in 2016. “In general,” says Doughty, “anywhere the cost of space is higher, there is a heavier emphasis on using less of it.”

To learn more about law practices changing offices around the country, click here.