The Office is Back - But What Does That Mean For Shared Legal Space?

Something's changed in New York. After years of half-empty floors and wait-and-see leases, Manhattan's office market is moving again. Companies are signing deals. Landlords are getting calls. The energy, for the first time in a long time, is starting to feel like a comeback.

But if you're a solo attorney or a small firm looking for a furnished office in someone else's suite—or you've got an extra one or two to fill—those headlines might feel like someone else's story. And honestly? They kind of are.

Most of the market movement right now is in big chunks. Whole floors. Dozens of thousands of square feet. Those deals help landlords, brokers, and corporate tenants, sure. But they don't necessarily help the lawyer who just needs one clean, professional space to work and meet clients.

So the question is: what does this new market actually mean for shared legal space?

There's no shortage of activity among large tenants. They're renewing. Expanding. Consolidating. Some are jumping into premium space; others are reshuffling to make room for hybrid teams. It's encouraging. It shows confidence.

But here's what they're not doing: slicing off one or two offices and offering them up to solo attorneys. Large firms just don't operate that way. Their extra space—when they have it—usually stays internal. Or it gets released to the market in big blocks, marketed through a broker, aimed at another big company.

If you're looking for 150 square feet in a Midtown suite with other attorneys, you're not the target for those deals. You probably won't even hear about them.

So while it's true that available space overall is starting to tighten, the kind of space lawyers actually use—small, furnished, plug-and-play offices—may not be growing at all. In fact, in some areas, it's getting harder to find.

Back when sublease availability was high, there were real options for attorneys. Firms that had downsized offered up extra rooms. Companies trimmed space and quietly floated it on the market. A few enterprising landlords even got creative.

But that wave is pulling back.

Now that firms are reoccupying space—or deciding to hold it just in case—a lot of the shareable inventory is disappearing. Not in a loud way. More like lights going off quietly. Listings vanish. Conversations stop. The phone that used to ring doesn't.

And so the solo attorney looking to get back into an office—or the three-lawyer firm with one room to spare—is stuck in the middle. Too small for brokers. Too niche for traditional real estate platforms. Not big enough to command attention, but still very much in need of solutions.

This is where LookingForSpace.com comes in. Our whole mission is to support that missing middle. We're built for attorneys—not brokers, not landlords, not big companies. Just lawyers with space, and lawyers who need it.

And we've simplified everything:
- No commissions.
- No middlemen.
- Just direct contact between lawyers.

If you have an office to rent, post it. If you're looking for space, browse listings by location, amenities, or even firm type. You reach out directly. You negotiate terms the way lawyers do every day—with clarity, logic, and respect.

This is an office-sharing model that actually understands how our profession works. It's lean, it's efficient, and it's growing—quietly, but quickly. Because even as the big real estate world recovers, attorneys still need space that makes sense for how we practice law.

Coming up in Part 2:
Why lawyers are choosing shared space more than ever—and how flexibility, turnkey offices, and working around other attorneys are shaping the next generation of legal practice.