The Once and Future Office Market: a Tale of Complexity and Change for Lawyers
| Publication year | 2021 |
| Author | By Gary H. London |
By Gary H. London
Gary H. London is a real estate advisor whose clients include developers, investors, lenders, asset managers, and owners. He is a partner of London Moeder Advisors, a diversified real estate strategic advisory, development management, investment, capital access, and analysis firm. He also serves as an expert witness in real estate litigation.
Many years ago an affluent, very successful client of mine, called me and promptly announced he was talking to me from his home in Aspen. I found it to be a curiosity, particularly because his business interests were primarily in Los Angeles.
"How can you be in Aspen?" I asked. His answer involved something about quality of life, including daily skiing or biking, telephonic communication (before the Zoom era) and the occasional plane flight. In short, he could pull off a professional existence that was not tethered to physical location.
He was my hero. Today, he is not particularly unusual, as we regularly hear about persons moving to the suburbs, or rural townships, favoring quality of life changes over the rigors and expense of an urban existence. In my case, I am writing this from my Accessory Dwelling Unit, which is city planning language for "home behind my home" which I call my Treehouse. Aptly named because only my best friends are invited to visit, enjoy some wine, and solve the world's problems.
But mostly I work here. I haven't visited my office or been in an actual room with my colleagues for over six months. I am a meme to them, a Zoom, Skype, or Microsoft Teams visage.
Is this a fad or is it permanent? Probably a little of both. But the premise that there is going to be a transformational change in where and how lawyers work is a bit overstated.
I call your attention to Exhibit 1, a picture of Apple's Cupertino Spaceship headquarters. It is no accident that most of the titans of the high technology cluster have built enormous citadels for their work forces, be they Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, or most any of their brethren.
Companies like these have all the techie tools, yet they will not abandon their offices. They understand the value of personal contact, collaborative work, casual interface, and all other forms of in-person transactions (company romance?). None will toss their huge investments in office campuses in favor of work-at-home.
But there are indications that at least for some of the time, for some of their personnel, that option may be taken.
It is a certainty that most professional service firms are reframing their office needs, which undoubtedly results in downsizing. This will take its toll on commercial centers be they in our central business districts or in the suburbs.
There will be an overall reduction in the use of and demand for office space across most working clusters whose workforce only require a computer and internet access to be functional for at least part of their workload. We have run the numbers, and this is what they...
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