After spending the past two decades in Westwood, the mid-size law firm Wood Smith Henning & Berman officially relocated its headquarters to Santa Monica in November.
The move essentially split its prior flagship in half, with about 25 attorneys who live closer to the Westside reporting to the Santa Monica office and another 25 or so closer to the South Bay now calling a new El Segundo location home.
“We started looking about a year ago,” said Co-founder and Executive Chairman Daniel Berman, recalling that then-landlord Douglas Emmet Inc. was lobbying for the firm to re-up in Westwood. “Ultimately, we moved into another Douglas Emmet building, so it worked out nicely for everyone.”
After once sharing about 23,000 square feet of space, each of the new offices is about 9,000 square feet apiece. Berman said they based their lease decisions on an employee “heat map” highlighting geographic consistencies.
“I think it’ll help attract talent, too,” Berman added.
Calling Santa Monica home
The relocation is the third one for Wood Smith Henning & Berman, after initially being based in downtown.
The firm – which boasts a scrappy origin story of stocking its first law library with books thrown away by a recently shuttered firm – has ballooned to having nearly 50 offices nationwide. Its additional local offices include offices in Glendale and Thousand Oaks.
Santa Monica represents a homecoming for Berman, who was raised in the beach city. He acknowledged that while its reputation has sunk in recent years for its red tape and its public safety issues, he was confident in a renewed determination by city leadership to make the city easy for businesses and tourists again.
“Santa Monica has taken a lot of hits but I’m very pleased to see the city is looking to invest in more business and retail and make things safer to turn it back into a prosperous place again,” he said. “We think the time is right to move here.”
The office choices also boiled down to the competitive options that were available.
“While everyone talks about office space being available, class A is not,” Berman added. “We looked really hard and to find good class A space west of the 405 is pretty limited.”
