WASHINGTON, DC-Mark Minich, a 25-year industry veteran in the DC real estate community who specializes in law-firm representation, has joined CB Richard Ellis from Cushman & Wakefield. Minich tells GlobeSt.com he is bringing his entire national client base with him, approximate 3 million-square-foot global portfolio.

Minich’s recent deals include Crowell and Moring’s 380,000-square-foot expansion and renewal of its headquarters at 1001 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Other clients include Fish & Richardson PC, Willkie Farr & Gallagher, Bingham McCutchen LLP, Boston Properties, Burson-Marsteller, Grant Thornton, NASDAQ and Simon Property Group.

Minich is making the move to CBRE during an interesting time for the legal real estate community: much like financial firms did a decade ago, law firms have begun to consolidate their non-attorney operations, such as human resources and accounting, in one center. The point has been to scale back space and use what is remaining more efficiently, a trend that was facilitated by the recession. An ideal ratio for firms now, he says, is roughly 600 square feet per attorney. In the hey day, he says, "that ratio could easily be 1,000 square feet per attorney."

In general, he says, law firms are trying to trim their occupancy costs, in some case by as much as 30%.

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Erika Morphy

Erika Morphy has been writing about commercial real estate at GlobeSt.com for more than ten years, covering the capital markets, the Mid-Atlantic region and national topics. She's a nerd so favorite examples of the former include accounting standards, Basel III and what Congress is brewing.