Summary: Law firms are one of the few sectors adding office space, and nearly all major firms expect lawyers in the office at least three days a week. That makes proof of how space is actually used more important when partners weigh a 2027 budget. Use your 2026 booking and check-in data to answer seven questions: policy versus practice, peak demand by practice group, client-facing rooms, tool fragmentation, experience versus cost, AI, and your case to leadership.
It’s budget season, and law firm leaders are asking a familiar question with higher stakes: how much space do we need in 2027, and what should it look like?
My short answer: start with how your space was really used in 2026. Booking and check-in data tells you which rooms and desks filled up, which sat empty, and when. That is the evidence a managing partner or COO needs to say yes to a renovation, a new floor, or a smaller footprint.
The market is moving fast. Cushman & Wakefield reports that 44% of legal sector leases signed in Q1 2026 were expansions, and fewer than one quarter were downsizing. Firms want to grow into better space, and they will need data to do it well. Here are seven questions to answer first.
1. Does your attendance policy match what actually happens?
Cushman & Wakefield found that 93% of major law firms state policies of at least three in-office days a week. CBRE’s 2026 law firm survey adds that most firms encourage attendance by building an appealing culture, not by mandating it. Policy tells you what the firm expects. Booking and check-in data tells you what happens. For background on how hybrid work is changing the legal office, read Hybrid Work Is Reshaping the Law Firm Office.
What to pull: bookings versus check-ins by week, by practice group, and by role.
2. What does peak demand look like for each practice group?
Space gets sized for the busiest days, not the average. Look at demand by day and by practice group, then ask whether the peaks are policy-driven or team-driven. Neighborhoods can help. At Kennedys, workstations are grouped by department or team to support collaboration and simplify booking. At BCLP, hot desking and reverse hoteling support a reduced desk count and the firm added bookable height-adjustable desks in high-demand areas.
3. Which conference rooms and client floors are always full, and which sit empty?
Compare what was booked with what was actually used. Check-ins reveal rooms that are reserved but empty, and rooms nobody can ever get. Separate your client-facing conference center from internal meeting rooms, since each has its own demand pattern and its own service expectations.
Here is how the Chief Facilities Management Officer at Kennedys describes the value of check-in data:
“The digital signage at desk and room level with check-in functionality helps us to better understand space utilization. We are now looking at how we measure actual space use through sensor technology.”
Andrew Alderson, Chief Facilities Management Officer, Kennedys
4. How many systems does it take to book a room, a desk, and lunch?
In my recent post on law firm workplace tech, I wrote about six firms, each with 8 to 20 locations, that shared the same pain point. They used one system for conference rooms, another for desks and offices, and Outlook plus forms or phone calls for A/V and catering. Before unifying its booking, many BCLP offices still reserved space with paper diaries and Excel, which limited visibility into availability across locations.
Friction also thins your data. If booking is hard, people work around it, and you lose the signal you need for planning. One law firm client shared that space usage increased 100% immediately after consolidating tools, simply because booking became easier.
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5. Are you investing in experience or trimming cost?
CBRE’s 2026 Law Firm Benchmarking Survey, based on 143 responses, found talent attraction and workplace experience now outrank cost reduction as real estate drivers. Cost-reduction priorities dropped 10 percentage points year over year, and renovations are the top strategy for optimizing real estate. Cushman & Wakefield adds that law firms leased 31% more office space over the past four quarters than in 2019. Your usage data helps you decide which spaces deserve renovation, which need to be rebalanced, and which are fine as they are.
6. How will AI show up in your space plan?
Cushman & Wakefield reports that 62% of law firms now actively use AI, up from 17% in 2023. As David Smith, Head of Americas Insights at Cushman & Wakefield, put it: “Law firms are not treating AI and the office as competing priorities.” CBRE’s survey notes that AI’s long-term impact on space remains uncertain, while the immediate priority is efficient, tech-enabled workspaces. Clean booking and utilization data is the foundation for either path. For a primer, see how AI is advancing desk and meeting room scheduling.
7. Can you make the case to your partners on one page?
Leadership responds to clarity. At Kennedys, the challenge was that Facilities lacked the data to make informed decisions on real estate optimization. Summarize your answers to the six questions above on one page, with a specific ask for 2027. Our whitepaper, The Case for Smarter Space Booking in the Modern Workplace, can help you frame it, and our law firm solutions page shows how Korbyt supports legal workplaces.
Conclusion
Law firms are investing in their offices again, and partners will ask what the space is delivering. The firms that answer with their own booking and check-in data will make better decisions about where to renovate, where to rebalance, and where to grow. Pick two or three of these questions, start with your 2026 data, and build your 2027 case from there.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Answers to common questions about law firm office space, booking data, and attendance trends.
It depends on how many people actually come in on your busiest days, not on headcount alone. Booking and check-in data by practice group and role gives you that number.
Start with bookings versus check-ins, no-shows, peak days by practice group, and client-facing versus internal room usage. Together they show real demand and where space goes unused.
Cushman & Wakefield found that 93% of major law firms state policies of at least three in-office days per week. CBRE’s 2026 survey found most firms encourage that level of attendance through culture rather than mandates.
Cushman & Wakefield found that 44% of legal sector leases signed in Q1 2026 were expansions, while fewer than one quarter reflected downsizing.
