Big Law Requires Big Office Leases

Cushman & Wakefield’s head of the legal advisory group, Sherry Cushman

NEW YORK CITY—The legal sector has reached $287 billion in US annual revenue. This is more gross revenue than Amazon and Google combined. In real estate leasing, New York City is the largest law firm market in the country, followed by Washington, DC, at a close second.

That’s why Cushman & Wakefield expanded their legal advisory group to 350 brokers. Six years ago, the real estate firm dedicated substantial resources to boost the group’s research and analysis work evaluating the real estate component of the business of law.

For the last three years, Cushman & Wakefield has surveyed 750 law firm associates, who confidentially responded. Fifty percent are from the AM Law 100 list. (GlobeSt.com‘s sister publication, The American Lawyer, publishes an annual national ranking of the top 100 law firms based on financial performance. Twenty-five of these are headquartered in New York.) This type of information helps Cushman advise firms on both immediate needs and long-term succession planning.

GlobeSt.com interviewed Cushman & Wakefield’s executive managing director and head of the legal advisory group, Sherry Cushman; and executive vice chairman and chairman of the tenant advisory group, Dale Schlather, to learn more about the latest trends in New York law firm office leasing.