Over the past four years, Chicago’s legal sector has accounted for almost 750,000 square feet of negative net absorption despite a robust economy keeping demand for legal services of all types strong. While much has been written about large law firms shedding space as they reconfigure their offices with open floor plans that appeal to millennial and Generation Z talent, not all are following the same course of action. Finding the right size At one end of the spectrum, many large law firms are electing to relocate to ultra-efficient trophy towers, justifying the exorbitant construction costs and rent increases associated with building out new space in Class A+ towers by shedding enormous amounts of space from their footprints. Of the four firms larger than 100,000 square feet that have elected to reduce their space when relocating to newly constructed towers since 2015, all have been able to shed roughly 35.5 percent of their prior footprints on average, with some firms achieving even greater reductions. For example, Holland & Knight attained a 45 percent space reduction in its recently announced move from 105,000 square feet at Citadel Center to 57,000 square feet at 150 North Riverside. There are also many large …
