I don’t have an office. Oh, I have everything I need—a desk, a computer, a round little table that beckons colleagues to sit down and catch up. But in the 101-year-old Equitable Building in New York where ALM is based, almost all of us sit out in the open. The idea is that we’re more inclined to talk and share ideas that way. Plus, it’s a lot cheaper.
Our special report in this issue on real estate trends explores Big Law’s version of that. As rents rise ever higher—$100 per square foot or more at the nation’s priciest legal addresses in New York, $73 per square foot in San Francisco—firms are opting for smaller footprints and drastic space reallocations.
