Kean Miller to Relocate Baton Rouge office to II City Plaza
Kean Miller is pleased to announce that the partnership has elected to relocate its Baton Rouge office from One American Place to the new II City Plaza building in downtown Baton Rouge. The move will take place in the fall of 2010 and will relocate almost 250 attorneys and staff.
“The firm’s explosive growth over the past 23 years is clearly the driver of this relocation,” said Gary A. Bezet, managing partner of the 130-attorney law firm. “Our negotiations with our new home began after an exhaustive study of options for our firm in the Capitol region. II City Plaza is clearly the most appropriate home for Kean Miller. Mike Wampold and his team have created the premier environment for a law firm of our size and scope,” added Bezet.
Kean Miller was founded in 1983 with 11 attorneys. The firm’s original offices were located in the Baton Rouge Savings and Loan building on the corner of North Boulevard and St. Ferdinand Street. In 1986, Kean Miller moved to its current location in the One American Place building with 25 attorneys. Kean Miller’s Baton Rouge office is currently home to 106 attorneys and 142 staff occupying almost 100,000 square feet of non-contiguous office space on 7 different floors and the service level of One American Place. The firm’s new home in II City Plaza will occupy approximately 75,000 square feet of contiguous space on the 6th, 7th, and 8th floors and with an option on the 5th floor. “This is a unique opportunity to reimagine our entire Baton Rouge office at one time. The law firm of tomorrow will be very different than our current space allows. Our new home will offer efficiencies of space, design, and technology that did not exist in our current space,” said Bezet. “I, along with the entire Wampold organization, am extremely pleased to include Kean Miller as one of our signature tenants at II City Plaza. It has been a pleasure working with the firm to reach this point and we look forward to a long relationship,” said Mike Wampold of Wampold Companies, Inc., owner and manager of II City Plaza LLC.
The new Kean Miller space will feature more efficient office space, effective workflow design, improved internal processes, a state-of-the-art client conference center and advanced technological assets. The firm has retained NELSON, a global interior design, architecture, engineering and consulting firm, to assist with the design of the new office. Lynn Osborne, IIDA, LEED® AP, director of NELSON’s Legal Workplace practice area and managing director of its Charlotte office, will lead the effort. The new lease was signed on January 19, 2010. The terms of the lease have not been disclosed.
About Kean Miller
With 130 lawyers, Kean Miller serves the legal needs of Louisiana businesses and Fortune 500 companies. The firm maintains offices in Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Lake Charles and Plaquemine, Louisiana and is the largest law firm in the Greater Baton Rouge region. The firm serves clients in numerous industries including energy, petrochemical and chemical, technology and telecommunications, transportation, media and advertising, financial services, insurance, gaming, government and education, healthcare, manufacturing, real estate, retail, construction and leasing. The firm combines the talent and expertise of its lawyers into multi-disciplinary client and industry teams. These teams are comprised of seasoned legal professionals from a variety of disciplines who are equipped to identify legal and business needs and to develop superior service strategies that provide unmatched support to the client.
For more information, contact Steve Boutwell at 225.389.3736, or steve.boutwell@keanmiller.com
“The firm’s explosive growth over the past 23 years is clearly the driver of this relocation,” said Gary A. Bezet, managing partner of the 130-attorney law firm. “Our negotiations with our new home began after an exhaustive study of options for our firm in the Capitol region. II City Plaza is clearly the most appropriate home for Kean Miller. Mike Wampold and his team have created the premier environment for a law firm of our size and scope,” added Bezet.
Kean Miller was founded in 1983 with 11 attorneys. The firm’s original offices were located in the Baton Rouge Savings and Loan building on the corner of North Boulevard and St. Ferdinand Street. In 1986, Kean Miller moved to its current location in the One American Place building with 25 attorneys. Kean Miller’s Baton Rouge office is currently home to 106 attorneys and 142 staff occupying almost 100,000 square feet of non-contiguous office space on 7 different floors and the service level of One American Place. The firm’s new home in II City Plaza will occupy approximately 75,000 square feet of contiguous space on the 6th, 7th, and 8th floors and with an option on the 5th floor. “This is a unique opportunity to reimagine our entire Baton Rouge office at one time. The law firm of tomorrow will be very different than our current space allows. Our new home will offer efficiencies of space, design, and technology that did not exist in our current space,” said Bezet. “I, along with the entire Wampold organization, am extremely pleased to include Kean Miller as one of our signature tenants at II City Plaza. It has been a pleasure working with the firm to reach this point and we look forward to a long relationship,” said Mike Wampold of Wampold Companies, Inc., owner and manager of II City Plaza LLC.
The new Kean Miller space will feature more efficient office space, effective workflow design, improved internal processes, a state-of-the-art client conference center and advanced technological assets. The firm has retained NELSON, a global interior design, architecture, engineering and consulting firm, to assist with the design of the new office. Lynn Osborne, IIDA, LEED® AP, director of NELSON’s Legal Workplace practice area and managing director of its Charlotte office, will lead the effort. The new lease was signed on January 19, 2010. The terms of the lease have not been disclosed.
About Kean Miller
With 130 lawyers, Kean Miller serves the legal needs of Louisiana businesses and Fortune 500 companies. The firm maintains offices in Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Lake Charles and Plaquemine, Louisiana and is the largest law firm in the Greater Baton Rouge region. The firm serves clients in numerous industries including energy, petrochemical and chemical, technology and telecommunications, transportation, media and advertising, financial services, insurance, gaming, government and education, healthcare, manufacturing, real estate, retail, construction and leasing. The firm combines the talent and expertise of its lawyers into multi-disciplinary client and industry teams. These teams are comprised of seasoned legal professionals from a variety of disciplines who are equipped to identify legal and business needs and to develop superior service strategies that provide unmatched support to the client.
For more information, contact Steve Boutwell at 225.389.3736, or steve.boutwell@keanmiller.com