Law Firm Leases Total $37M

Bay and Hammerstein represented the law firms in both of the leases, with landlord Trizec Properties represented by John McAniff and John Eichler of Cushman & Wakefield in the Heller Ehrman deal and building owner Manufacturers Life was repped in-house by Parker Jones in the Hennigan, Bennet & Dorman lease.Heller Ehrman, which was named by The American Lawyer as No. 2 on the magazine's "A-List" of the best law firms in the US, will relocate from its 58,800-sf offices at 601 S. Figueroa St. to occupy 77,674 sf at the Bank of America Plaza. (The American Lawyer is owned by GlobeSt.com's parent firm, ALM.) The law firm plans to completely redesign its new office space, which will be on the 38th and 39th floors as well as a portion of the 37th floor. Heller Ehrman expects to move into the space in November. The Bank of America building is a 1.4-million-sf class A tower on 4.2 acres at 333 S. Hope St., covering the entire city block bounded by Hope, Third, Fourth and Flower streets. Completed in 1974, the building features formal outdoor gardens with more than 200 trees and includes a nine-level parking garage of more than 2,200 spaces.Hennigan, Bennet & Dorman LLP is an elite litigation and bankruptcy law firm that will be relocating from 601 S. Figueroa to occupy 41,458 sf on the 28th and 29th floors at the TCW Building, approximately the same amount of space that the firm now occupies. It is scheduled to move into its new space in February 2006.The two new law firm deals come slightly more than a month after Bay and Hammerstein represented the law firm of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges LLP in its $10-million lease for a nine-year 45,000-sf expansion of its space at the TCW Building, where Quinn Emanuel now occupies 166,000 sf. Law firms have been one of the most active tenant classes in the Los Angeles office market in recent years, and the Bay-Hammerstein team has been one of the most active in representing them, having negotiated leases on behalf of 18 of the 50 largest law firms in L.A.