Investor Watch: December 9, 2021

Studying anonymized keycard, fob and KastlePresence app access data from the 2,600 buildings and 41,000 businesses the company secures across 47 states, Kastle Systems’ Back to Work Barometer reports that U.S. office occupancy rebounded after the Thanksgiving holiday, with Austin and Houston showing pronounced jumps among the top 10 cities examined, where occupancy reached 40.6% on average. “The legal industry occupancy average remains well ahead of the Back to Work Barometer for all businesses,” the company reports, noting that it provides managed security services for 49 firms in the AmLaw 100. “Despite holiday schedules, 56.2% of legal industry employees worked in the office during the past week, while only 40.6% of all workers did.” Compared to the 10-city average on the Kastle Back to Work Barometer, the legal industry is returning to the office at rates 10 percentage points higher than other businesses. Kastle has been tracking the anonymized activity of 341,000 unique office credential holders in major cities, 31,582 of which are in the legal industry. Meanwhile, the company itself recently has announced expansions into new markets in Boston, Charlotte and Seattle.

“In talking with our law firm clients, we are hearing many factors that have made remote work more challenging for this sector, including paper-heavy office systems and generally being slower to adopt new technologies,” Kastle CEO Haniel Lynn said. “For many of our members, some firms never closed at the beginning of the pandemic,” added Association of Legal Administrators Executive Director April Campbell. “Different local government guidance on what workers were deemed essential meant that in some cities, that sometimes included law firms. There have also been concerns about the ability to onboard new employees and conduct new associate training remotely, so we’re seeing law firms in the office at higher rates.”

Data from the Conway Analytics projects database show law firms haven’t been putting the brakes on new office projects and leases either: The data show a total of 91 projects from law firms since March 2020 when the pandemic began. The New York metro area leads all with 18 law firm projects. Below are the top five, which like the Kastle numbers are led by Texas cities. — Adam Bruns

DIGITAL EDITION

The complete Digital Edition of Conway Data’s Workforce 2022 publication is now available. Inside, in addition to reports across a range of industries and topics from Site Selection’s team of editors, you’ll find exclusive, high-level insights from such contributors as the Kauffman Foundation, Lumina Foundation, Cresa, Opportunity America, the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, the Work Institute and the National Center for Construction Education & Research.

Add two events with national economic development implications to your calendar. First, on January 11, 2022, the U.S. Chamber kicks off the year with State of American Business 2022: Competition for the Future, a virtual event. “The challenges, disruptions, and opportunities accelerated by the pandemic are creating a new economic era that American businesses will help define,” says the Chamber. “From the competition for talent in a transforming workforce, to the competition in the global economy, to the competition in the markets for world-changing solutions, to the competition of ideas that will take shape in the midterm elections, and more — we will delve into the multilayered dynamics businesses will confront in 2022.”

Meanwhile, SelectUSA has announced that its annual Investment Summit will return to an in-person gathering, taking place June 26-29, 2022, at Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. The annual event will include more than 150 sessions, as well as networking and interactive exhibitor showcases featuring economic development organizations, service providers, industry experts and international tech startups. Site Selection readers will recall our reporting from past SelectUSA Investment Summits at National Harbor, in including insights into life sciences and petrochemical projects.

Part of Carol M. Highsmith’s America Project in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive at the Library of Congress, this photograph made last year in Chickasha (“CHICK-a-shay”), Oklahoma, depicts a giant replica of the famous (infamous?) woman’s leg lamp featured in the film “A Christmas Story.” Highsmith notes that it was erected specifically for the 2020 holiday season in honor of a late local resident, Noland James, who claimed to have designed a prototype of such a lamp. Be careful … it’s “fra-gee-lay.”