Another Law Firm Downsizes in Downtown L.A.

Another law firm is downsizing and relocating its office space in Downtown Los Angeles.

Hill, Farrer & Burrill signed a lease for 25,000 square feet at 515 South Flower Street at City National Plaza, a two-tower property in the heart of downtown’s financial district owned by CommonWealth Partners. The firm will move in June 2025, according to JLL (JLL), which represented the tenant on the deal. 

The law firm is moving from its 33,000-square-foot space at the nearby One California Plaza at 300 South Grand Avenue, owned by Digital Bridge and Rising Realty, about a half-mile southwest of City National Plaza. The move represents a nearly 25 percent reduction but keeps the law firm in Downtown L.A., where it’s been for more than a century.

The 52-story City National Plaza property, designed by AC Martin Partners, spans a full city black.

JLL’s Tom McDonald, Mike McKeever and Tony Morales represented Hill, Farrer & Burrill in the lease. John Bendetti represented the landlord  in-house.

“Despite the challenging office leasing climate in Downtown Los Angeles, there are still high-quality transactions being completed with financially strong landlords,” McKeever said in a statement.

The law firm’s lease is in line with the larger trends shaping the struggling office market, where weak office activity is largely defined by renewals and downsizing by law firms and financial companies. But the recent uptick in large-scale employees ditching remote work policies has also brought an improved sentiment.

“A reduction in interest rates, coupled with increasing office attendance, will help spur renewed demand across L.A.’s diversified tenant base,” according to JLL’s third-quarter office report.

Gregory Cornfield can be reached at gcornfield@commercialobserver.com.