Ropes & Gray Moving On Up in NYC Amid Rise in Law Office Leasing

Boston-founded firm Ropes & Gray is expanding its footprint in the Big Apple, the firm announced Monday.

Ropes is moving to another space in New York City’s midtown. The larger office, at 1285 Avenue of the Americas, will supply more than 535,000 square feet of office space, according to the firm. The firm is currently housed a few blocks south at 1211 Avenue of the Americas.

“New York serves as a strategic hub for our firm, our local clients as well as many of our global clients,” firm leader Julie Jones said in a statement. “We have experienced tremendous growth in this important city by dedicating ourselves to providing top-tier legal services to these clients and by recruiting many of the best lawyers in the New York market.” Jones was reelected to another five-year term in September.

The deals-focused firm will enter its 20-year-long lease at its new Gotham headquarters in 2028. About one-third of its roughly 1,500 lawyers are based in New York.

Big Law’s appetite for physical office space has increased over the last year. Year-to-date leasing activity has reached 6.4 million square feet, according to advisory firm Savills. That’s a nearly 30% increase from the same period last year, which reflects a resurgence in activity that surpasses pre-pandemic levels, according to Savills’ latest tenancy report.

Overall about one-third of firms are expanding their footprints, while another one-third are scaling down and the rest are making negligible changes. New York accounted for more than 25% of law firm leasing activity by square footage in the third quarter, but Chicago led with four of the top ten transactions and the highest number of deals overall.

Return-to-office rate are almost 80% of its pre-pandemic levels in New York, largely influenced by Wall Street’s in-person push.

Ropes & Gray last year brought in nearly $3 billion in revenue and reported $4.5 million in profits per equity partner, according to The American Lawyer. Clients have included Bain Capital and Pfizer, Inc.

The firm was among the top 20 mergers and acquisitions advisers through the first three quarters of this year, according to Bloomberg data.

It recruited Amish Shah,who previously seved as senior associate counsel to President Joe Biden, to its DC outpost last month.