WASHINGTON, DC-Top tier law firms in the DC area—that is, firms that can be found on the Am Law 100—have largely recovered from 2009, CBRE’s newly appointed vice chairman Pat Marr, tells GlobeSt.com. They did so in large part by adopting a portfolio approach to real estate—that is, by appointing brokers such as CBRE to manage their real estate space on as an efficient basis as possible. “We saw a renewed commitment on the part of these firms to keeping expenses in check,” Marr says.
Now area firms have reached an inflection point: they are still keeping a tight grip on real estate costs but are also entering a period of higher opportunity with the presidential election and increased regulatory focus. These two factors will combine to yield revenue growth between 4% to 8%, depending on the practice group, Marr says. That in turn will lead to increased profits on a per partner basis. “And that is what attracts the top tier rainmakers to a firm,” he says.
Law firms have been steadily decreasing the space they use for various reasons—not just economic. They are consolidating their non-attorney operations, such as human resources or accounting, in one center. They are also using secretarial pools, instead of assigning an assistant to every attorney. Finally, as more research resources are digitized, the need for law firm libraries is diminishing. It is the rare exception these days for a law firm to actually expand their space. One such exception recently was Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox, which expanded from its current 87,000 square feet at 1100 New York Ave., NW, to 117,711 square feet in a new lease at the East End building.
© Touchpoint Markets, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to asset-and-logo-licensing@alm.com. For more inforrmation visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
