Totally McKool! Law Firm Triples N.Y.C. Space with One Bryant Park Deal
By Tom Acitelli September 29, 2009 6:45 pm
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Texas law firm McKool Smith is subleasing 30,000 square feet—the entire 47th floor of the Bank of America Tower—and tripling its New York office space. The national litigation firm is increasing to an office of 20 attorneys, up from just one in 2007, when McKool Smith arrived in New York.
McKool Smith’s space is indeed cool; it uses new “green” technologies and materials to achieve platinum level LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification—the highest attainable. “As a leading law firm in the protection of innovators and inventors’ patent rights, we are especially proud to make such a center of innovation our new home in New York,” Robert Cote, patent litigator with McKool, said in a statement.
The firm will occupy the 47th floor of New York’s second tallest skyscraper, owned and operated by mega-developer the Durst Organization. “It’s great news for the city and its economic recovery that McKool Smith has selected this magnificent building,” said Douglas Durst, the firm’s co-president and a proponent of the environment, famous for his omnipresent green socks.
The Durst Organization refinanced the building, which boasts a 98 percent occupancy rate, this June for $1.275 billion. The Amend Group represented McKool Smith; sublandlord law firm Akin Gump was represented by Lisa Kiell of Jones Lang LaSalle.
