How Big is Your Law Office

In the legal world, size matters—but maybe not in the way you'd think. While some attorneys may boast about corner offices with skyline views, the industry is quietly undergoing a square footage revolution. Let's talk about the elephant (or rather, the shrinking elephant) in the room: law firm office space.

The Glory Days of Spacious Offices

Remember when partner offices were practically apartments? Just a decade ago, some law firms were allocating a whopping 800+ rentable square feet per attorney. Those palatial partner offices of 240+ square feet could comfortably fit a conference table, a leather sofa, and enough ego to fill the remaining space. Associates weren't doing too badly either, with offices hovering around 180 square feet.

Before the pandemic hit, Cushman & Wakefield reported that law firms averaged 675 square feet per attorney in 2019. For perspective, that's roughly the size of a small one-bedroom apartment in many cities—just for your workday home.

Reality Check: Today's Numbers

If you're shopping for law firm space in the 2020s, you might want to recalibrate your expectations. According to Savills' 2024 Law Firm Benchmarking Report, the average efficiency for Am Law 100 offices stands at 937 square feet per attorney—though this number includes all the high-end outliers.

Breaking it down:

About 30% of Am Law 100 firm locations fall in the 750-1,000 sf/attorney rang. A surprising 37% still allocate over 1,000 sf/attorney

The elite Top 25 Am Law firms are actually leading the efficiency charge, with 38% of their locations at 750 sf/attorney or below

Geography plays a significant role too. If you're practicing in Los Angeles, you're likely working in the nation's most space-efficient market (averaging 835 sf/attorney). Meanwhile, Houston attorneys are spreading out with a luxurious 1,023 sf/attorney. New Yorkers fall somewhere in between at 895 sf/attorney—though with Manhattan rental rates, that's hardly a bargain.

The Incredible Shrinking Law Office

The trend is clear: law firms are downsizing their footprints. The current common range stands at 600-800 rentable square feet per attorney, with forward-thinking firms pushing even lower. Many are targeting 500-750 sf/attorney, a significant reduction from the historical 900-1,000 sf/attorney standards.

By 2026, the industry is aiming for an average target density of 515 square feet per attorney, with nearly two-thirds of firms planning to use just 400-600 square feet for each attorney. In fact, 41% of law firms reported using less than 600 square feet per attorney in 2023, up from 27% in 2020. While our chart shows current averages still being considerably higher (850-1,250 sf/attorney), the direction is unmistakable.

Law Firm Office Size Matters: The Numbers

When it comes to office space allocation, one size definitely doesn't fit all. The data clearly shows that smaller firms typically require more space per attorney than larger practices:

Why the difference? Smaller firms (5-50 attorneys) often maintain larger offices per attorney (1,050-1,250 sq ft) due to less efficient layouts, more private offices, and fewer shared amenities. As firms grow, they typically become more space-efficient—mid-sized firms (75-200 attorneys) average around 900-1,000 sq ft per attorney, while large firms (300+ attorneys) often achieve even greater efficiency at 850-900 sq ft per attorney or less.

What's Behind the Great Squeeze?

Several factors are driving this downsizing trend:

Cost pressures and competitive fee landscapes (because clients are increasingly reluctant to subsidize your corner office)

Digitization (goodbye, massive law libraries and file rooms)

Reduced support staff (from a traditional 2:1 attorney-to-paralegal ratio to today's 5:1 average)

Pandemic-accelerated hybrid work models (turns out attorneys can work from home without the legal system collapsing)

Shared meeting spaces (why have 50 conference rooms when 10 will do?)

Hoteling and hot desk systems (heresy a decade ago, increasingly common today)

Still Living Large (Comparatively Speaking)

Despite these reductions, law firms remain the spacious mansions of the commercial real estate world. Consider these industry comparisons:

Law firms: 250-300 square feet per employee
Corporate offices: 175-200 square feet per employee
Tech startups: 150-175 square feet per employee
Call centers: 120-150 square feet per employee

Even at the targeted 515 sf/attorney (which translates to about 275 sf per total employee when including support staff), law firms still occupy more than 2.5 times the pre-pandemic average for U.S. office workers.

Finding Your Right Size

If you're a law firm looking for new space, consider where you fall on the spectrum. Are you clinging to the spacious traditions of yesterday, or embracing the efficient footprints of tomorrow? There's no single right answer—your firm's culture, practice areas, and client expectations all play important roles in determining your ideal square footage.

But one thing is certain: the days of 800+ square feet per attorney are fading into legal history. The future belongs to firms that can balance professional prestige with practical efficiency.

After all, in today's legal market, it's not the size of your office that matters as much as what you do with the space you have.