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WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
REAL DEALS - Law firm leasing activity has slowed markedly in the second half of the summer amid growing concern about the Delta variant, according to prominent brokers, but the upside for firms looking for new digs is that it’s undeniably a lessee’s market right now. “There are more concessions to be had right now. The markets are weakened,” Melissa Copley, vice chairman of the Chicago office of real estate broker Newmark, told Law.com’s Dan Packel. “There is an opportunity there to buy low and sell high.” Among firms facing lease deadlines, an unusually high proportion are opting for short-term renewals and restructurings of current leases, according to Sherry Cushman, executive managing partner at Cushman & Wakefield. But Copley said firms with outdated offices are missing out on opportunities to ditch their drab drywall in favor of smaller, glass-walled offices and more collaborative spaces. “With leasing and expirations, that still is an opportunity for people to do what they were doing before, to right-size and right-fit their space. A short-term decision does not get you to do that,” Copley said. “The firms that don’t address it and try to get themselves into the best space as soon as possible are really going to be behind.”
