Law Firm Signs $30M Lease at One California

The new lease will consolidate two McKenna Long & Aldridge Downtown L.A. offices into a single location and will reduce its space usage from 771 square feet per attorney to 586 square feet per attorney, a move that "will enhance collaboration between our practice groups and allow us to operate more efficiently and cost effectively for clients," according to a statement by MLA chairman Jeff Haidet. By reducing the square feet per attorney, the firm says, it will realize a 31% increase in efficiency. Haidet notes that the new office occupies a fully built-out law firm space with existing improvements as well as space that will be refurbished.

McKenna Long & Aldridge was represented by Whitley Collins, Darren Eades, Tom McDonald and Tony Morales of Jones Lang LaSalle, with Maguire represented internally by Josh Wrobel. Eades points out that the law firm, which will complete construction and move in later this year at One California Plaza, started the search process well in advance of its lease expiration so it was "prepared to pull the trigger on the perfect relocation scenario" when the opportunity arose.

Thomas Abbott, chair of MLA's government contracts practice, says that the Los Angeles office has the region's leading government contracts practice as well as a very strong real estate group, so it is "ideally placed to help clients navigate the business opportunities and challenges associated with the federal stimulus package as well as potential public-private partnerships for infrastructure development."

In addition to real estate finance and development, and government contracts, MLA's attorneys and professionals in Los Angeles provide clients with service in commercial, employment and toxic tort matters, environmental compliance and white collar crime related issues. Its clients include Fortune 500 companies, mid-size companies, major government contractors and non-profit organizations. In addition to civil business litigation and white collar criminal defense, the office has extensive experience in international dispute resolutions in the Middle East, Europe, Canada and Japan.

McKenna Long & Aldridge is one of a number of law firms that have signed large office leases in the L.A. area in recent months in a series of expansions, consolidations and relocations that have produced some of the relatively few large office transactions in the region since the downturn began. Earlier this year, the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis signed a lease for 90,000 square feet of office space at Brookfield Properties Corp.'s 1.4-million-square-foot Bank of America Plaza at 333 S. Hope St. on Bunker Hill. In another deal, Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger signed a 15-year renewal for 61,806 square feet of office space at 1900 Avenue of the Stars in Century City.