New York-based Dewey Ballantine will lease 50,000 sf at Wells Fargo Tower, 333 S. Grand Ave. The 10-year contract is valued at $15 million.

The law firm will move into its new space next May, according to the Downtown office of Cushman Realty Corp., which represented the law firm in the transaction. The office tower's owner, LA-based Maguire Thomas, represented itself in the lease negotiations.

Only last week, the Bay Area law firm of Crosby, Heafey, Roach & May signed a similar deal for 60,000 sf at Wells Fargo Center. It was one of the first major leases to be announced in several months for class A space Downtown, an area where mergers among once-powerful tenants in the banking and energy businesses have pushed the vacancy factor above 20%. Vacancies in most other LA submarkets are in the single digits, brokerage reports say.