Manhattan's office sector as a whole has found resiliency in the post-pandemic environment. One industry that's thriving? The legal sector, which finished 2025 with 3.74 million square feet in signings, up 17.8 percent from the previous year, a market report from Colliers reveals. And most notably, that figure would have been the largest one on record if it wasn't for 2023, when signings hit 4.04 million square feet.
Nearly 75 percent of the signings in 2025 occurred in Midtown, which was actually down from 2024's 75.5 percent.
The activity last year was led by Ropes & Gray, with its 376,903 square foot extension at 1211 Avenue of the Americas. Some other large leases in Manhattan's legal sector were Mayer Brown, expanding to 330,662 square feet at 1221 Avenue of the Americas and Goodwin Protector signing for 244,433 square feet at 200 Fifth Avenue.
Occupancy numbers, meanwhile, tell an interesting story. While it's been known as a flight to quality across the national office sector in the post-pandemic world, Manhattan's legal sector is now seeing less demand for newer and higher-quality assets.
For example, post-war buildings maintain the highest occupancy, at 48 percent, followed by post-1980 and post-2000, at 22 percent and 21 percent, respectively. The latter two experienced a one percentage point drop each from 2024 levels. Also, occupancy levels for trophy assets dropped by three percent to 34 percent in 2025.
Also, while leasing was strong in Midtown, the 70 percent occupancy in the submarket marked a record low. Downtown's occupancy share was 16.3 percent.
Then there's legal rents, which came in weak. The 2025 starting rents dropped to $81.57 per square foot in 2025, down significantly from the $93.34 per square foot seen in 2024. Plus, the number represented a 4.3 percent discount from office rents as a whole on average in Manhattan.
"The drop was fueled by a decline in leases with a starting rent above $100/SF, with just 0.26M SF of activity in 2025 compared to 1.45M SF in 2024," Colliers said.
But on the bright side for legal landlords, the rent abatement period for legal was down to the lowest level since 2020, at 14.9 months. Yet, it still outperformed the 13.2 average for office overall in Manhattan.
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