The legal sector has embarked on a new era of hybrid working with many firms looking to cut office space – however, one city firm is taking the unusual step of moving to bigger premises.

US-headquartered Jenner & Block has agreed a lease on 13,000 square feet of offices at 10 Exchange Square in Broadgate, London, which will be a 45% increase on its existing space at Tower 42. The lease includes an option for additional floorspace after five years.

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The firm opened its London office in 2015 with just two lawyers. He now has 20 fee-earners specializing in complex commercial litigation, international arbitration and white collar defence.

Charlie Lightfoot, managing partner of the London office, said: ‘We have outgrown our existing space and need further room to grow in the future. We continue to focus on a combination of targeted lateral recruitment and organically building and nurturing our younger lawyers.’

Managing partners Katya Jestin and Randy Mehrberg said the move ‘is a mark of the confidence we have in our London lawyers, the phenomenal services they provide, and the continued growth we expect in the coming years’.

The past few months have been a busy time for the international firm in terms of real estate. Last year, it opened an office in San Francisco. It recently moved to new offices in Los Angeles, renewed the lease on its Chicago headquarters and is moving to new offices in New York.

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SAN JOSE (CBS SF) – New national figures released showing initial jobless claims fell to 184,000 in the week ending December 4, the lowest since September 1969, according to the Department of Labor.

But California is bucking the trend.

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“This morning we had 20 percent of the new jobless claims in the country, while we only got about 11.7 percent of the
civilian workforce, ”said Michael Bernick, labor attorney and former head of the state’s employment development department.

Bernick says several COVID-related factors contribute to California’s oversized proportion of the country’s unemployed.

“Sustained effects of the very strict closings and the impact on our small business economy as well as the heightened concerns about COVID and its variants, childcare and uncertainty about schools,” said Bernick.

Large office buildings and corporate headquarters in downtown San Jose remain largely empty.

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With COVID posing a persistent health threat, companies have postponed plans to return to the office more than once. This has created a ghost town effect on the streets and in restaurants like 4th Street Pizza.

“It still has a profound effect on us,” said Josh McGhie, co-owner of 4th Street Pizza. “I mean, downtown San Jose used to be a busy area. There are very few people out here now. “

Fewer people in the office mean fewer people on the sidewalk buying food, shopping or needing services. That means reduced working hours for small businesses and their employees.

In addition, there is a segment of the California workforce that is slow to return to work, even when jobs are available.

“Young people, it seems, don’t want a job. It’s definitely hard to hire people, ”said McGhie.

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It makes it difficult especially for small businesses, which McGhie says are still operating in survival mode.

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Upwork, a service for freelance workers to register on a digital marketplace, will be relocating its headquarters from Santa Clara to San Francisco.

Part of this is for convenience, reported the San Francisco Business Times. The new offices are more easily accessible to customers outside the bay and are located near a CalTrain stop.

However, a key component of the business is less floor space, according to the Business Times – the offices in San Francisco will be much smaller than the current offices, which will be sublet for the next 10 years to overcome the current rental situation. The new office is located in SoMa, 47 Brannan St.

In fact, CEO Hayden Brown told the Silicon Valley Business Journal that the move is part of an effort to normalize remote working after the pandemic – and not force people to come to the office every day.

“That will create a magnetic pull,” said Brown. “I don’t want other people to feel the pressure or that I try to create a kind of face-time culture myself by being there.”

Brown also said that much of Upwork’s 570 workers stayed in the bay during the pandemic. (Also note: she said her employees are paid by location.)

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