Wilson Elser has signed a 10-year lease for office space at Tower Place 200 in Buckhead, two years after the national firm launched an Atlanta office—its first in the Southeast outside of Florida.

A full-service firm with a strong focus on defense litigation, Wilson Elser opened the Atlanta office in March 2017 with a six-lawyer team from Gordon & Rees led by Jeff Melcher.

Since then, the Atlanta office has expanded to 11 lawyers, and Wilson Elser has launched Southeastern outposts in Birmingham and Nashville. Based in New York, the roughly 800-lawyer firm has 37 U.S. offices.

Wilson Elser has taken about 7,250 square feet on the top floor of Tower Place 200, located at 3348 Peachtree Road N.E. It relocated from a 6,000 square foot, sublease space at 950 East Paces Ferry Road.

Melcher said the build-out at Tower Place 200 employs state-of-the-art law firm design features, with single-size offices, adjustable-height standing desks and glass interior walls throughout. Tower Place 200 is a LEED-certified building proximate to the Buckhead MARTA station.

The new office can accommodate up to 17 lawyers, said Melcher, who is Wilson Elser's Southeastern regional managing partner, and the firm has expansion options in its lease.

“We're growing,” he said, forecasting further additions in Atlanta and the Southeast. “I'm not necessarily saying we want to grow to any target, like 25 or 50 lawyers. We're following the business. So far, it hasn't let up.”

Wilson Elser is building a Southeastern practice anchored in Atlanta with an emphasis on defense litigation, Melcher said. “Our practice mirrors that of the firm,” he said. “We handle the full gamut of defense litigation with a strong focus on liability defense.”

That includes employment, professional and general liability, in addition to insurance coverage, transportation and commercial litigation.

The firm ranked No. 106 on The American Lawyer's list of largest U.S. firms, with $324.6 million in revenue and profits per equity partner averaging $444,000.

Wilson Elser was represented by Chris Tarzon and Tom Kubis of real estate brokerage Savills. The building owner, Cousins Properties, was represented in-house by Jeff Dils.

Wilson Elser's move into larger space follows the entry into Atlanta of another litigation-focused Am Law 200 firm, Shook Hardy & Bacon, which is based in Kansas City, Missouri.

Shook launched an Atlanta office—also its first in the Southeast outside of Florida—on June 8 with three product liability defense partners from Alston & Bird: Colin Kelly, who's heading the office, Josh Becker and Anna Sumner Pieschel.

Shook, a 500-lawyer firm, is No. 103 on the Am Law 200 revenue ranking, with $348.1 million in revenue and $918,000 in average profits per equity partner.

Shook is leasing 11,000 square feet, about half a floor, in the Promenade Building at 1230 Peachtree St. N.E. in Midtown.