Law Firms Booming?

Across the country law firms are shrinking, in headcount and office space. (Fewer lawyers? Isn't that the punchline to most of the jokes in the world?) Not so in Houston, says Savills Studley EVP Steve Biegel (a former attorney himself)—we’re actually expanding that sector.

Nationwide, M&A activity, law firms focusing on international over domestic growth, and slower revenue growth have led to a contraction in employment and footprint. But Steve (right, at a company cocktail party) says Houston hasn’t been impacted by large corporate M&A so much as a slew of international firms moving into Houston and stealing existing practice groups. (20 large firms have entered Houston since 2010, including four so far this year.) And while those affect the raided firm’s headcount, Houston’s overall lawyer count doesn’t take a hit.

Rather, we’re actually benefiting—the biggest impact of M&A is typically a big loss of administrative/support staff, but the opening of new offices here doubles instead of halves that. Steve suspects we’re leading the country in new international law firms by quite a bit. (Like international firm Kirkland & Ellis, which opened this year in 600 Travis, its 12th global office.) And that’s having a wonderful effect on real estate—he gets an email about once a month about a new entry to Houston needing a full floor ASAP. This won’t last forever, though; there are only a limited number of groups that can be stolen, and the trend will slow.