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It's Hoteling, Not Moteling
The Need to Optimize Real Estate
Law firms are utilizing less than half of their real estate. Kastle Systems reports that as of March 2023, the overall office occupancy rate is 48%, with the occupancy rate for law firms varying around that, ranging between 26% to 50% of their space for most firms. See, Colliers 2023 Law Firm Office Markets North America Report. With the average law firm spending 10.5% of gross annual revenue on real estate (see, Cushman & Wakefield 2023 Bright Insights), this overhead expense is significant — and not utilizing half or more of it is of enormous concern.
Here's a quick, reductive calculation — given the average full-service Class A asking rent across 21 markets is $40.17 per square foot (See, Colliers 2023 Law Firm Office Markets North America Report) and that law firms occupy approximately 120 million square feet of real estate in total, we're talking about a very large number: $24trillion dollars in unused real estate per year. It really should come as no surprise that 65% of law firms are expected to reduce their space needs, both when renewing in place or relocating. Ibid.
Over the past year and a half, law firms have, in fact, started to implement space reduction strategies, reducing space per attorney ratios and overall square footage by 13% on average. The declines in space-per-attorney have been even larger in high-cost gate way markets and for the largest firms. Ibid. Additionally, it is anticipated that nearly 75% of law firms will design space that can be more easily divided, providing greater flexibility. Ibid.
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