Seyfarth Shaw Opens New LEED-Eligible Office in Atlanta; Real Estate Partner Steven Kennedy Appointed Atlanta Managing Partner

New 83,000-square foot space at 1075 Peachtree St. is registered for LEED CI Gold rating, will make Seyfarth one of Atlanta’s first LEED-certified law firms; innovative design includes equal office size for partners/associates

Atlanta, GA (April 26, 2010)— In a high-profile move reflecting its commitment to the Atlanta market, Seyfarth Shaw LLP, one of America’s leading full-service law firms, is relocating its office here to one of the city’s newest properties, in the process becoming one of Atlanta’s first law firms to seek the coveted LEED Commercial Interiors Gold certification for green design. At the same time, the firm has named real estate partner Steven L. Kennedy its new Office Managing Partner for Atlanta. He succeeds Paul P. Mattingly, who is Chair of the firm’s national Real Estate Department.

Seyfarth Shaw’s new office is located downtown at 1075 Peachtree St., a joint development of Daniel Corp., MetLife and Selig Enterprises that is part of the complex known as 12th and Midtown (www.12thandmidtown.com). Atlanta-based Seyfarth Shaw Real Estate partners Jim Kaminer and Lynn Holliday negotiated the deal on behalf of the firm. The firm will occupy approximately 83,000 square feet (all of Floors 23, 24 and 25) designed to house up to 121 attorneys and another 102 professional staff and provide for future expansion needs.

To be eligible for LEED certification, Seyfarth’s office space at 12th and Midtown, created by noted architectural and interior design firm NELSON, complied with a number of environmental design and construction practices, including: an emphasis on natural lighting, recycling of construction waste, an onsite recycling center, green janitorial processes, automatic dimmers and other features. The pending LEED certification of Seyfarth’s office space is in addition to the building’s separate LEED certification. LEED compliance is set by the U.S. Green Building Council. 

The new offices boast 10-foot ceilings and open workstations for paralegals and other staff, creating an airier and more light-filled environment than the typical professional services firm. A nursing room is available for mothers with young children, along with a shower facility for all staff, which makes it easier for personnel to commute to work by bicycling or other green modes of transportation. Drywall construction was kept to a minimum throughout. 

Additionally, in a departure from the historical law firm layout, Seyfarth’s new Atlanta space features universal office dimensions – that is, all of Seyfarth’s 70-plus current attorneys, from first-year associates to senior partners, will have the same-sized office, even those with corner offices. The one-sized office minimizes reconfiguration costs and increases flexibility related to future growth and any required practice group reconfiguration, as applied to both incoming laterals and new associate hires. 

“We recognize that the universal office represents a break from traditional law firm hierarchy – and that is exactly our intent,” said Kennedy, the new Managing Partner of Seyfarth’s Atlanta office. “Having an efficient and egalitarian office space for all attorneys seemed to go hand in hand with our commitment to a green, sustainable workplace. Our new space creates a flexible, collaborative work environment and eliminates the stress of whether or not we have the right mix of associate versus partner offices. This way, we’ll always be ‘right-sized,’ no matter how large the office may become in the next few years.”

In another move that is both eco- and economy-minded, the layout of the new space includes multiple support stations for paraprofessional staff to encourage teamwork and the sharing of resources and office equipment.  Each floor also contains a specially designed, collaborative beverage area designed to cause greater interaction and information sharing among our staff. Meanwhile, office services,  which includes the law library, file repository and IT services, are housed in the interior core of the office where they may require greater floor reinforcement.

“In addition to enhancing the closeness between partners and associates, we hope our new space fosters greater communication and teamwork among all our employees, through the open floor plan, greater use of shared support stations, and more open technology,” added Kennedy.  “Every element was conceived to promote greater cooperation, better access to other staff and also a more inspired workplace.” He noted that even though the new space is significantly larger than Seyfarth’s former office and adds ample room for further growth, the efficiency of the design actually reduced the square footage for each individual employee office.

Launched in 1996, Seyfarth’s Atlanta office is regularly recognized as a leader in associate and employee satisfaction surveys. Seyfarth was cited by the Atlanta Business Chronicle as among the fastest-growing law firms in Atlanta over the last five years. The office is well represented in all major law firm rankings, including Chambers and America’s Leading Lawyers for Business. Attorneys in Atlanta provide full-service legal counsel, with strong practice offerings in: business immigration, construction, corporate, employee benefits, environmental, ERISA, labor & employment law, and real estate.

“It’s a testament to Paul Mattingly’s leadership that our office has continued to grow and post solid results, even during a challenging period, giving us an opportunity to have a more visible presence in the market through our move to 12th and Midtown,” said Kennedy, who joined Seyfarth in 2001. 

Kennedy regularly represents major lenders, developers, commercial landlords and investors in a variety of real estate settings – retail, industrial and multi-family development. On the development side, his work includes acquisitions, construction financing, joint ventures and leasing. He also represents clients on land use matters, zoning/entitlement, environmental reviews, construction contracting and structuring of equity investments. Kennedy advises institutional lenders in secured financing, acquisition lines of credit, letter of credit refinancing, and construction loan transactions primarily in the southeast but also throughout the country as clients require.

Seyfarth Shaw’s new home in the 725,000-square-foot tower at 1075 Peachtree St. has been built to LEED specifications and is registered for certification with the U.S. Green Building Council. It is part of a larger complex being marketed as 12th & Midtown, the cornerstone of the Midtown Mile, which includes a more than three-million-square-foot mixed-use development spanning four city blocks.

Note on Seyfarth Shaw’s new office 1075 Peachtree Street

• Developers: Daniel Corp., Selig Enterprises Inc., and MetLife Real Estate Investments, Inc.
• Building Architect: Rule Joy Trammell + Rubio
• Architect, Seyfarth Shaw offices: NELSON
• Building Contractor: Brasfield & Gorrie LLC
• Contractor, Seyfarth Shaw offices: Skanska USA Building
• Seyfarth Shaw Project Manager: Project Time & Cost, Inc.
• Lender: Hypo Real Estate Capital Corp.

Seyfarth Shaw has over 750 attorneys located in ten offices throughout the United States including Chicago; New York; Boston; Washington, D.C.; Atlanta; Houston; Los Angeles; San Francisco and Sacramento; as well as Brussels, Belgium. The firm provides a broad range of legal services in the areas of labor and employment, business services, employee benefits and litigation. Seyfarth Shaw’s practice reflects virtually every industry and segment of the country’s business and social fabric. Clients include over 300 of the Fortune 500 companies, financial institutions, newspapers and other media, hotels, health care organizations, airlines and railroads. The firm also represents a number of federal, state, and local governmental and educational entities. For more information, please visit www.seyfarth.com.