Fisher Phillips Expands Los Angeles Holdings in New Offices

The Los Angeles office market continues to attract so-called traditional companies like law firms.

Fisher Phillips, an Atlanta-based labor and employment law firm, signed a new lease for 35,744 square feet at 515 South Flower Street in Downtown Los Angeles, as well as a new 13,624-square-foot lease at 21600 Oxnard Street in Woodland Hills, CoStar reported. It’s a major step up in space for the firm, which employs 675 attorneys in 45 offices around the world.

Fisher Phillips opened its first Los Angeles office in 2011 and has offices in DTLA and in the same Woodland Hills building where it will be moving spaces. The downtown office spans 9,500 square feet at 444 South Flower Street while its current Woodland Hills outpost spans nearly half of its planned 13,624-square-foot footprint.

The law firm’s Woodland Hills office is located in the 21-story Warner Center Towers office complex, which houses other law firms, consumer products firms and insurance companies. Fisher Phillips new digs at the property are 89 percent larger than the firm’s previous space.

When Fisher Phillips opens its new offices at the 52-story City National Plaza tower in DTLA, it will join other traditional firms like law firm Paul Hastings and investment manager TCW. The new space will be more than 250 percent larger than its current Flower Street offices.

The expansion reflects a nationwide trend in the legal sector.

In the first quarter alone, law firms leased 4.6 million square feet of office space across the United States, marking a 25 percent year-over-year increase and the strongest first quarter on record for the sector, according to Cushman & Wakefield data cited by CoStar. In total, that activity makes up 8.4 percent of total leasing volume across the top 10 U.S. legal markets.

In Los Angeles, office absorption over the past two years has been increasingly dominated by companies including law firms and financial companies, taking the place of tech and entertainment entities, which had been snapping up space between 2021 and 2023, according to Avison Young.

In November, law firm Hill, Farrer & Burrill announced a move into City National Plaza. Hanson Bridgett signed a lease for 15,000 square feet at The CalEdison DTLA last July. In 2022, Mayer Brown nearly doubled its office space with a 55,000-square-foot, 11-year lease at the Wells Fargo Center, also downtown.

— Chris Malone Méndez