Attorneys looking for office space in Dallas-Fort Worth are well past the 2008 recession when legal layoffs and closures dominated national headlines.
In fact, the DFW legal services industry is growing quickly —the fifth-fastest rate in the country — and lawyers are consuming local office space rapidly, a new study from CBRE says.
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Law firms leased 707K SF of office in DFW, most of it in Uptown Dallas and the north side of the Downtown area, CBRE said in its 2019 North American Legal Sector Trends Report.
Legal services employment in the Metroplex grew 5.1% from 2016 through 2018 in DFW, which is well above the average national growth rate of 1.6%. This put pressure on the market to find more space for firms.
“Never in my real estate career have I seen so many of the AM Law 200 companies setting up shop in Dallas that have not previously been here,” CBRE Vice Chairman Phil Puckett said. “We are seeing a majority of these firms setting up their offices in Uptown or on the north side of Downtown.”
The law firms nabbing office leases today are in many cases expanding or moving to newer spaces with better amenities and offices.
Large multinational firms also have their sights set on DFW with 44% of law firm real estate transactions last year in the Metroplex consisting of relocations.
Another 39% were classified as renewals, while the remaining 16% were new transactions.
