There was a time when law firms didn’t need a button on their websites to list office locations because they had only one.

That’s largely not the case anymore—including for some midsize firms in the Southeast with offices in Atlanta. Conversations with leaders at Hall Booth Smith, Miller & Martin and Stites & Harbison show that their reasons for expanding vary. One move might stem from needing to help a client in a particular spot. Another opens in a new location to grab a well-known litigator there. Yet another firm might let a lawyer plant a flag elsewhere because his family has to move.