Chuck Campbell, a local partner in the Seattle-based law firm, tells GlobeSt.com the deal kills three birds with one stone. It consolidates operations heretofore split into two buildings, moves it from the South of Market Area to a prestigious address that better represents its clientele, and gives it a below-market lease rate on highly-finished, fully-furnished space that was built out less than a year ago.

"This was the most significant event in the office's history in terms of saying 'we're here for the long haul," says Campbell. "180 Townsend was terrific when we opened here a number of years ago; a lot of our clients were dot com and had offices in that area. "There is still a significant IP component to our practice, but we have also grown the office in the areas of labor, real estate and general commercial litigation, what I would consider a more traditional mix of disciplines."

"It's been my feeling since I came here in August 2003 that we really needed to elevate our visibility to the legal and business communities by being in a more traditional space, and Four Embarcadero was a real opportunity because it's a trophy building. When you get off the elevator (on the 24th floor) it really speaks class. If we had to build it out this is how we would have done it had there been no budget constraint."