Clifford Chance is shelling out $20 million on new luxury offices in Houston, Texas as it scales up its U.S. growth ambitions.
The new office will be spread out over two floors and 60,400 square foot in the 47-story, one-million-square-foot Texas Tower, owned by U.S. real estate asset managers Hines.
Texas Tower, which completed in late 2021, features multiple food and beverage offerings, abundant spaces for networking, a full-service conference facility, public gardens, and a high-performance fitness center as well as ten-foot full height windows throughout, according to the Hines website.
The firm first launched in Houston with seven partners back in June 2023. Houston is being viewed as a key destination for U.K.-founded law firms, as a hub for the energy transition movement and a less crowded alternative to New York’s legal market.
The cost of the fitting out the office set to hit $20 million, coming to more than $330 per square foot, according to publicly available figures.
By comparison in the London market, elite U.S. firm Paul, Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison, which caused a stir when it chose Twitter’s former West End HQ as its new London home, is shelling out £115 per square foot, adding up to a total £10 million a year, according to a market report by real estate agents Knight Frank, which advised on the move.
Clifford Chance has not shied away from its ambitions in the U.S., especially as pressure from other elite U.K. outfits including Freshfields, which has made considerable investments in the States over the last few years, and A&O Shearman has been hotting up.
Of the seven partners, three were internal relocations as well as several lateral hires including two partners from Latham & Watkins, one energy partner from Jones Day and a Kirkland & Ellis M&A partner.
Since then, the office, Clifford Chance’s third in the U.S., has seen its total number of partners swell to 15, with the firm making a number of high profile laterals.
According to a person with knowledge of the matter, total office headcount in Houston now stands at more than 45.
Most recently it added Latham & Watkins capital markets partner Om Pandya back in September; it also added Shearman & Sterling tax partner Todd Lowther back in May.
Commenting on the move, office Managing Partner Devika Kornbacher said: “We’re excited to be moving to our new home to accommodate our growing team.”
The firm has also been growing its New York offering, adding two partners from O’Melveny & Myers earlier this month.