Fisher Phillips is the latest national law firm to add to its portfolio of upscale office space around the country, planting deeper roots in Los Angeles as it grows on two fronts: in downtown and in the nearby San Fernando Valley.
The Atlanta-based labor and employment law firm signed a 35,744-square-foot lease at 515 South Flower St. and a 13,624-square-foot agreement at 21600 Oxnard St. in Woodland Hills. The deals represent a major boost in local square footage for a firm with 675 attorneys across 45 offices across the globe — and reflects nationwide demand for law office space.
“These new office spaces are more than just a larger footprint,” said Todd Scherwin, regional managing partner for the law firm, in a statement from Fisher Phillips. “They are also pivotal to our dedication to attracting and retaining the very best legal talent.”
The deal shows how law firms are an increasingly major tenant in Los Angeles and nationwide, leasing 4.6 million square feet of U.S. office space in the first quarter of 2025 alone — a 25% year-over-year increase and the strongest first quarter on record, according to a report released this month from real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield.
That activity accounts for 8.4% of total leasing volume across the top 10 U.S. legal markets and contrasts with the still-stunted growth of many other office-using sectors, according to the report.
The deals also reflect a preference for top-flight properties among growing national law firms, with amenities and location the key to bringing employees back to the office. Mintz law firm in San Francisco, Bradley Arant Boult Cummings in Washington, D.C., and Reed Smith in Denver are a few recent examples.
“The landlords that have invested heavily in their properties are landing the premier tenants," Jim Schoolfield, managing director with JLL who represented Fisher Phillips in both deals, told CoStar News.
LA office market struggles
The expansion comes as the office market in Los Angeles, the nation's second-biggest city, remains in a deep slump, with vacancy near a decadeslong high of 17% and leasing activity 25% below pre-pandemic levels.
Demand continues to trail amid tech and entertainment layoffs, high unemployment and slow return-to-office trends.
Nationally, office vacancy hovers around 14%, with tenants giving back 19 million square feet more than they leased over the past year — an improvement from 34 million square feet the year prior, according to CoStar data.
Fisher Phillips, which opened its first Los Angeles office in 2011, is relocating and boosting the size of its downtown presence from a much smaller 9,500 square feet at 444 S. Flower St., and nearly doubling its footprint in the Valley while staying in the same building.
Downtown Los Angeles and Woodland Hills are nearly 25 miles apart but with Los Angeles traffic, that trek could take about an hour on a good day. The two areas serve vastly different commercial functions within the broader Los Angeles market.
Downtown is the region’s historic urban core, dense with high-rise office towers, finance firms, law offices and civic institutions, while Woodland Hills sits at the western edge of the San Fernando Valley and functions as a suburban commercial hub, known for its corporate campuses, back-office users and proximity to affluent residential communities.
Bigger office
At the 21-story Warner Center Towers office complex in Woodland Hills owned by Douglas Emmett, Fisher Phillips operates alongside a mix of tenants ranging from other law firms to consumer products companies and insurance companies. Fisher Phillips' new office at the property is 89% larger than its previous space.
Meanwhile at CommonWealth Partners' 52-story City National tower, Fisher Phillips joins tenants such as TCW and Paul Hastings. The law firm's new office at the property will be more than 250% larger than its previous downtown office.
Earlier this month, Oaktree Capital Management signed a deal to fill about 220,000 square feet at City National, marking one of the largest deals to be signed in the Los Angeles office market over the past half-decade, according to CoStar data.
Fisher Phillips is not the only law firm expanding in Los Angeles. Some are even taking advantage of low prices to snap up prime properties to own and operate.
And while not every firm is adding square feet, the dramatic square footage reductions of law firms in the 2010s have slowed. Since 2023, lease sizes on renewals have declined by less than 2% across the country's top legal markets, suggesting a new balance between efficiency and experience, according to Cushman & Wakefield.
About 56% of law firms expect attorneys to be in the office at least three days per week. That's far higher than in tech or finance, reinforcing the role of physical space in culture and mentorship, according to Cushman & Wakefield.
For the record
JLL’s Schoolfield and Kevin Bender represented Fisher Phillips in the two leases. For the deal on Flower Street, landlord Commonwealth Partners was represented in-house by John Bendetti. For the lease on Oxnard Street, landlord Douglas Emmett was represented in-house by Ali Mourad.