Gilbert Brings Another 80 Jobs Downtown and ......

[Khorasaurus]

The commute between

brimingham -> novi
birmingham -> downtown

is basically about the same. I'm not sure if I buy that reason.

The closer to the courts is something that probably makes sense. Although if that was the case why not move the whole office? And bring Plunkett Cooney's main office to downtown while you're at it

Distance wise, sure, but getting downtown is either a straight shot on I-75, or if that's backed up you take Woodward. Bloomfield Hills to Novi [[their office is actually at 8 and Haggerty) involves Telegraph, 696, and 275, with very few other good options if those are backed up. And regardless of what we think, a Varnum attorney told me their lawyers that live in that area were pushing hard for a downtown office for commute reasons.

For lawyers in general, they need to get to courts in Detroit, Pontiac, Mt. Clemens, and sometimes Ann Arbor or Flint. That's why so many law offices are located in Southfield - easy drives to both Downtown Detroit and Pontiac.

[Mackinaw]

Hard to speak generally about where a good location for attorneys is. I work in a central city as an attorney and cannot imagine it otherwise. That said if you are heavy on litigation versus corporate work it depends-- if your client base is, say, Oakland County criminal work, you'll want to be up there. But if Wayne County criminal work, then most everything is consolidated downtown so you could walk everywhere. On the civil side, if you have a bankruptcy practice or some sort of prestigious federal court-focused practice, again being downtown near this new Varnum location is a no-brainer-- walk to federal court.

The litigation process kind of blows things up though and if you are anywhere outside of New York you'll probably need a car to get to one-off court appearances and, in particular, depositions that could be anywhere.