{"id":153612,"date":"2026-06-02T15:05:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T23:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/06\/02\/biglaw-office-space-driving-best-real-estate-boom-this-century\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T15:05:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T23:05:19","slug":"biglaw-office-space-driving-best-real-estate-boom-this-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/06\/02\/biglaw-office-space-driving-best-real-estate-boom-this-century\/","title":{"rendered":"Biglaw Office Space Driving Best Real Estate Boom This Century"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Manhattan office market is on track for its best year since 2000. In 2020, that sentence seemed impossible to imagine. As the global pandemic proved office workers \u2014 including, if not especially, lawyers \u2014 could generate record revenue working from home with a wifi connection, the commercial real estate market felt cooked. Office buildings across Manhattan started openly investigating what it would take to convert to luxury condos as businesses jettisoned leases in favor of work-from-home policies. Just about the only voice pushing for a robust return to office life was Morgan Stanley<\/a>, who almost assuredly found itself massively overinvested in a market in collapse.<\/p>\n

Fast forward, and while many businesses have downsized, a few industries have scaled up their office consumption. And the city\u2019s law firms are driving the best market of the 21st century. Because there\u2019s no \u201cyear zero,\u201d the century began in 2001\u2026 I don\u2019t make the rules.<\/p>\n

According to a new Colliers report by way of The Real Deal<\/a>, tenants signed for 4.2 million square feet in May alone, up 35 percent year-over-year, and year-to-date leasing has hit 19.6 million square feet. Availability is down to 13.2 percent, the lowest it\u2019s been since October 2020. Asking rents are at their highest since the pandemic.<\/p>\n

The single largest deal of the month was Simpson Thacher & Bartlett\u2019s 916,000-square-foot lease at Extell\u2019s tower at 570 Fifth Avenue. That building doesn\u2019t actually exist yet, but it\u2019s expected to be done in 2028. The Simpson deal is the second-biggest lease in Manhattan all year, coming in 200,000 square feet larger than anyone had previously reported. For anyone unable to visualize square footage that way, the firm will boast about 21 acres of New York office space. <\/p>\n

The Real Deal flagged the same dynamic in May<\/a>, when Willkie Farr & Gallagher and Kirkland & Ellis each tacked on more than 50,000 square feet to their Midtown footprints. Major firms committed to 1.9 million square feet of Manhattan leasing in the first quarter, per a Savills report, and 70 percent of that was renewals or expansions.<\/p>\n

While firms claw back their early work-from-home pledges, most still keep the in-office mandates below the old 5-day standard. At one point, \u201choteling\u201d seemed the obvious path forward for firms, freeing up office space and doling it out workspaces to lawyers on a temporary basis. But firms seem just fine sinking cash into offices that might be empty an extra day.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s one thing to give every associate an office that\u2019s dark an extra day of the week (on the rare weeks that lawyers aren\u2019t in the office all seven days regardless of mandates), and another to have empty offices. The emergence of AI presents a different challenge. These firms committing to 15 years of office space may regret it in a few years if AI captures more and more first-year work and hiring declines. Not to mention the paralegal, staff attorney, and administrative assistant ranks, which may become even more vulnerable to downsizing.<\/p>\n

Despite the tech bro hype, AI won\u2019t trigger mass layoffs in legal, because it will never be able to replace the most critical legal tasks. But it doesn\u2019t have to replace<\/em> lawyers to ruin the office space math. If just has to make first-year associates (or paralegals, or assistants) marginally more productive. Firms don\u2019t need a dramatic round of layoffs, just slow attrition. Year after year, the firm hires fewer and fewer replacements until suddenly 916,000 square feet feels awfully empty.<\/p>\n

So enjoy the best year in real estate since 2000. But also think about everything that happened over the following 20 years.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Biglaw Office Space Driving Best Real Estate Boom This Century<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

The Manhattan office market is on track for its best year since 2000. In 2020, that sentence seemed impossible to imagine. As the global pandemic proved office workers \u2014 including, if not especially, lawyers \u2014 could generate record revenue working from home with a wifi connection, the commercial real estate market felt cooked. Office buildings across Manhattan started openly investigating what it would take to convert to luxury condos as businesses jettisoned leases in favor of work-from-home policies. Just about the only voice pushing for a robust return to office life was Morgan Stanley<\/a>, who almost assuredly found itself massively overinvested in a market in collapse.<\/p>\n

Fast forward, and while many businesses have downsized, a few industries have scaled up their office consumption. And the city\u2019s law firms are driving the best market of the 21st century. Because there\u2019s no \u201cyear zero,\u201d the century began in 2001\u2026 I don\u2019t make the rules.<\/p>\n

According to a new Colliers report by way of The Real Deal<\/a>, tenants signed for 4.2 million square feet in May alone, up 35 percent year-over-year, and year-to-date leasing has hit 19.6 million square feet. Availability is down to 13.2 percent, the lowest it\u2019s been since October 2020. Asking rents are at their highest since the pandemic.<\/p>\n

The single largest deal of the month was Simpson Thacher & Bartlett\u2019s 916,000-square-foot lease at Extell\u2019s tower at 570 Fifth Avenue. That building doesn\u2019t actually exist yet, but it\u2019s expected to be done in 2028. The Simpson deal is the second-biggest lease in Manhattan all year, coming in 200,000 square feet larger than anyone had previously reported. For anyone unable to visualize square footage that way, the firm will boast about 21 acres of New York office space. <\/p>\n

The Real Deal flagged the same dynamic in May<\/a>, when Willkie Farr & Gallagher and Kirkland & Ellis each tacked on more than 50,000 square feet to their Midtown footprints. Major firms committed to 1.9 million square feet of Manhattan leasing in the first quarter, per a Savills report, and 70 percent of that was renewals or expansions.<\/p>\n

While firms claw back their early work-from-home pledges, most still keep the in-office mandates below the old 5-day standard. At one point, \u201choteling\u201d seemed the obvious path forward for firms, freeing up office space and doling it out workspaces to lawyers on a temporary basis. But firms seem just fine sinking cash into offices that might be empty an extra day.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s one thing to give every associate an office that\u2019s dark an extra day of the week (on the rare weeks that lawyers aren\u2019t in the office all seven days regardless of mandates), and another to have empty offices. The emergence of AI presents a different challenge. These firms committing to 15 years of office space may regret it in a few years if AI captures more and more first-year work and hiring declines. Not to mention the paralegal, staff attorney, and administrative assistant ranks, which may become even more vulnerable to downsizing.<\/p>\n

Despite the tech bro hype, AI won\u2019t trigger mass layoffs in legal, because it will never be able to replace the most critical legal tasks. But it doesn\u2019t have to replace<\/em> lawyers to ruin the office space math. If just has to make first-year associates (or paralegals, or assistants) marginally more productive. Firms don\u2019t need a dramatic round of layoffs, just slow attrition. Year after year, the firm hires fewer and fewer replacements until suddenly 916,000 square feet feels awfully empty.<\/p>\n

So enjoy the best year in real estate since 2000. But also think about everything that happened over the following 20 years.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Manhattan office market is on track for its best year since 2000. In 2020, that sentence seemed impossible to imagine. As the global pandemic proved office workers \u2014 including, if not especially, lawyers \u2014 could generate record revenue working from home with a wifi connection, the commercial real estate market felt cooked. Office buildings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153612\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}