Legal sector office leasing jumped 17% year-over-year in the first half of 2026, climbing to nearly 12.2 million square feet, according to new figures from Cushman & Wakefield reported by Reuters. Law firms accounted for 14% of all office leasing across the 10 major legal markets the brokerage tracks in the second quarter alone. “Law firms are pretty optimistic about their trajectory,” said David Smith, head of Americas Insights for the Cushman & Wakefield Global Think Tank, possibly the understatement of the fiscal year. The legal sector, per the report, was a “key driver of demand” as the broader office market claws its way back and tenant demand “steadily” ticks up.
Manhattan firms have been locked in a space race, and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett’s 916,000-square-foot relocation — the single largest legal deal of the quarter, according to Savills — is the kind of number that would have been unthinkable in 2020, back when landlords were quietly pricing out condo conversions.
Since 2023, Biglaw has been tightening its in-office mandates with the enthusiasm of a firm that has somewhere very expensive to put everyone, despite associates making it clear they’ll trade prestige for flexibility. Four days a week is increasingly the new floor across Biglaw, with Duane Morris the latest to jump from three to four just last week. And Sullivan & Cromwell is leading the pack with five days required in the office. The leasing figures make a statement: the work-from-home heyday is behind us — you don’t ink these deals for a hybrid workforce that turns up when it feels like it.
It’s been trending for a while now that firms lease reckless amounts of premium space and then, having done so, discover a sudden and urgent need for everyone to come justify it in person. Three years later, the mandate and the lease have stopped being cause and effect and started being the same gesture. The work-from-home glory days are not coming back.
Earlier: Biglaw Office Space Driving Best Real Estate Boom This Century
Biglaw’s Return-To-Office Push Is Showing Up In Law Firm Real Estate Deals
Biglaw’s Three-Day Office Week Is Going Out Of Style
Prestige Is Out, Flexibility Is In! But Did Biglaw Get The Memo?
Biglaw Lawyers Must Return To The Office To Justify Management’s Reckless Office Space Leases
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Bluesky @Kathryn1
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