Dechert, Teasdale, and Morrison & Foerster will close their offices in some US cities
Three law firms have announced the closure of several offices in US cities where they had previously expanded, Reuters has reported.
Philadelphia-based Dechert confirmed that it will shutter its offices in Chicago, Beijing, and Hong Kong following a strategic review. Dechert's Chicago office, opened in 2012, is part of this consolidation effort to optimize office locations.
Armstrong Teasdale, headquartered in St. Louis, revealed its plans to exit Boston and Salt Lake City, where it had established offices in 2020. The firm has faced significant attorney departures in Boston and a substantial loss of its Salt Lake City team to the local firm Dentons Durham Jones Pinegar.
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Additionally, Morrison & Foerster, a San Francisco-founded firm, announced that it will transition its Miami office to a flexible workspace model after the current lease expires. This move, which the firm does not categorize as a closure, follows their initial hiring of Miami-based lawyers in 2019
The legal industry's competitive nature often leads large firms to poach lawyers to establish new offices. However, firms occasionally retreat from markets, driven by necessity or strategic considerations.
Peter Zeughauser of the Zeughauser Group, a consultant to law firms, noted, "Firms are paying more attention to how their bottom line is driven by their strategy, so they're weeding out whatever doesn't fit well into their core strategy."
Data from Leopard Solutions, a legal market research firm, indicates that the top 200 US law firms by revenue have collectively closed at least 119 domestic offices since July 2021.
Cities like Boston, Chicago, Miami, and Salt Lake City have recently witnessed an influx of out-of-town law firms, intensifying the competition for legal talent. Boston and Chicago, with their well-established legal markets, have long attracted firms. Miami, serving as a gateway for legal work in Latin America, and Salt Lake City, buoyed by a burgeoning startup economy, have also drawn significant attention from expanding law firms since 2020.