Despite law firm’s attempts at driving efficiency in their use of space for decades, Savills Legal Tenant found that the average square foot per attorney ratio is still relatively high in our 2023 Benchmarking Report. The report used market lease data and numbers of attorneys by office reported to The American Lawyer to analyze over 1,400 Am Law 100 office locations across the U.S.
Key Findings
- The average efficiency of Am Law 100 offices is 985 square feet per attorney (sf/atty).
- 32% of these firms’ locations are in the 750 to 1,000 sf/atty range and 43% of locations are over 1,000 sf/atty.
- In examining Am Law 100 leases over 50,000 square feet (sf), signed in 2021 and 2022, 48% of transactions represented downsizes, 27% stayed in roughly the same amount of space, 20% were expansions, and 5% were new-to-market leases.