Gone are the 300-square-foot partner offices and oak floors. In are bamboo cabinets, recycled Terrazzo floors and conference rooms that stream in natural light.
Squire Sanders & Dempsey — the international law firm whose Washington office relocated in August to the central business district after 30 years near the White House — hopes the new features will be enough to earn the highest rating for green construction and design, known as LEED platinum.
(Jeffrey MacMillan/For Capital Business) - The view from Squire Sanders & Dempsey’s new office, which it hopes will get LEED platinum certification.
The designation is an outgrowth from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design sytem that measures a building’s square footage, energy efficiency, amount of natural light, whether materials are locally sourced and come from fast-growing or recycled materials.
The building itself, at 1200 19th St. NW, already has been certified LEED platinum; the firm, whose 62 Washington attorneys take up two floors of the 11-story property, will seek platinum certification for the office interior next year.
Squire Sanders is the latest in a slew of top 100 firms in the District that have completed recent moves, or are planning to relocate next year, to new or refurbished LEED-certified properties. Vinson & Elkins and Hunton & Williams moved in June and July, respectively, both to 2200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW at Washington Circle. Arent Fox is heading to the Pei Cobb Freed & Partners building at Connecticut and K; Holland & Knight to PNC Place at 17th and H; and McDermott Will & Emery to North Capitol and E Street in what will, upon completion, be called the McDermott Building. Most law firms are the lead tenants at gold or platinum LEED properties.
The greening of law firms is not a new phenomenon. Firms for years have been incorporating sustainability practices in their operations (according to a CB Richard Ellis report issued in late 2010, about half of the Am Law 100 firms have some type of environmental program, and 11 of the 100 have achieved or are seeking LEED certification). But the burst of recent movement in the District reflects a unique confluence of forces at play in Washington, lawyers and LEED experts said.
Consider:
Washington has by far the highest number of lawyers per capita out of any state — 277 per 10,000 residents (the next highest is New York, with 20 lawyers per 10,000 residents), according to the AveryIndex.
Washington is among a handful of cities including Boston, New York, San Francisco and Chicago leading the LEED movement. The District ranks second among U.S. cities for number of LEED projects, according to the U.S. Green Building Council, which sets the standards for LEED certification. In 2009, the city began requiring all new construction or major renovations to nonresidential private buildings of least 50,000 square feet to submit a building checklist outlining green features.
Major law firms are viewed by property owners as stable tenants, thus often becoming anchor tenants of large buildings.
The result is an unusually high number of new LEED buildings in the District that house, or plan to house, law firms, said Roger Platt, senior vice president for global policy at the U.S. Green Building Council.
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