Law firm Howrey LLP has signed on to lease some of the Irvine office space being left by another law firm, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP.
Howrey is leasing 34,000 square feet, or nearly half of Gibson, Dunn’s space, at 4 Park Plaza.
The white office building is part of Jamboree Center, the five-tower office and hotel complex alongside Jamboree Road and the San Diego (I-405) Freeway.
Washington, D.C.-based Howrey, which does securities litigation, antitrust and intellectual property law, signed a 10-year lease. The firm is taking a floor and a half at The Irvine Company building.
Terms weren’t disclosed.
Rents at the building are $3.30 to $3.75 per square foot a month, according to the Irvine Co.’s Web site. The county average for office space is about $2.50 per square foot.
Howrey is expanding by 13,000 square feet with the lease. The firm’s local office now is about a mile away at 2040 Main St., part of Opus Center Irvine.
Howrey represents companies and their officers and directors in class-action suits, other shareholder litigation and also in Securities and Exchange Commission investigations.
The firm has been growing, adding about six lawyers locally in the past year. Howrey now has close to 24 lawyers and 41 workers overall in its Irvine office.
Nationally, the firm has about 600 lawyers.
Howrey will be taking over space that is ready for a law firm, said Kevin Bender, senior vice president for the Newport Beach-based office of CB Richard Ellis Group Inc.
“It’s a great opportunity for (Howrey) to accommodate their expansion” in a higher-profile building, Bender said.
Los Angeles-based Gibson, Dunn is leaving about six floors at Jamboree Center. Next year, the firm’s local office is moving across the freeway to an office tower being built by Maguire Properties Inc.
Gibson, Dunn,OC’s fifth largest firm according to the Business Journal’s January list,last year announced plans to take 80,000 square feet at the Maguire building, one of two big preleases for the 530,000-square-foot tower.
Subprime lender New Century Financial Corp. is taking another 190,000 square feet at the 19-story tower at 3161 Michelson Drive, part of Maguire’s Park Place complex.
Gibson, Dunn is the largest law firm to announce a move to one of the six office towers being built around John Wayne Airport and in the Irvine Spectrum.
More deals are expected, though Rutan & Tucker LLP, the county’s largest law firm, is staying put after looking at some new tower space.
Rutan just signed a deal to stay at its Costa Mesa headquarters for at least another 15 years (see story, page 1).
Bender, Clay Hammerstein and Steve Wiseman of CB Richard Ellis represented Howrey in the Jamboree Center lease. The Irvine Co.’s Gary Gerson represented his company.
