MG Law is moving into the third floor of 4801 Cox Road. (Courtesy Commonwealth Commercial)
As it looks to grow its attorney roster, a local law firm is leaving its longtime West End home for new digs in Innsbrook.
MG Law, also known as MeyerGoergen, this month signed a lease for a new office at 4801 Cox Road.
The 7,100-square-foot space will replace the firm’s larger, current spot at 1802 Bayberry Court in the Glen Forest Office Park.
Rick Lawrence, MG Law’s president, said the firm had been in the Bayberry space for 14 years and its lease was coming up. He said the firm wanted to renovate the space to make more efficient use of it, but that its landlord wasn’t interested.
The firm ultimately found the spot in Innsbrook with a landlord willing to help it have a clean slate with which to work.
Rick Lawrence
“We’ll have the same number of personnel and slightly less square footage in a brand new space,” Lawrence said, adding that lease rates in Innsbrook are slightly cheaper than its current building.
The firm’s nine attorneys and 15 support staff employees hope to move into the third-floor Innsbrook space in February.
Lawrence said the owner of the Cox Road building, Seminole Trail Management, a Charlottesville-based company that bought the property in a portfolio deal two years ago, is handling the design and construction to ready the space.
Commonwealth Commercial brokers Eric Hammond, Eliza Izard and Russell Wyatt represented Seminole Trail in the lease negotiations.
MG Law was founded in 1991 as Meyer Goergen Marrs, named for partners Bernie Meyer, Peter Goergen and Brad Marrs. It rebranded about a decade ago after Marrs split off to start his own firm.
MG Law represents clients in civil litigation, commercial litigation, commercial development and lender representation cases.
Lawrence said the new office will give the firm room to get back to about a dozen attorneys, though hiring has been slow going lately.
“We are actively trying to hire additional lawyers, but it’s not easy to hire attorneys these days,” he said.
Firm vice president Joe Perini said the newly designed office might help with recruiting.
“I think a lot of folks always love a fresh new space,” Perini said.
Lawrence said it’s likely the firm won’t grow too far beyond that.
“In a perfect world maybe, we’d get to 15 or 17 attorneys,” he said. “If you start getting bigger than that the practice of law gets a little less fun, in my experience.”