REal Talk with Adam Perrotta - Wednesday

It's no secret that Manhattan's office leasing market has taken its share of lumps as the economy has soured; and considering the island's status as a global center of the crippled financial industry, that's a pretty big share. With vacancies up across all submarkets, landlords are finding themselves being forced to lower rents and/or offer concessions to draw new tenants and hold onto the ones they already have.

But if you're looking for signs of life, law firm Marcum & Kliegman's 67,200-square-foot deal at SL Green's 750 Third Avenue is a good place to start. The lease is the largest in Midtown so far this year--which is of course a far lesser title than it would have been a year or two ago, but is still certainly a noteworthy transaction in any market.

Also notable, I think, is the fact that the tenant is a law firm. As financial companies continue to buckle as a result of the economic tumult, the legal sector could step in, to an extent, to fill some of the void. The financial chaos that has laid low so many other industries has not had nearly as extreme an effect on law firms--and in some ways has even helped the sector, as firms are called in to deal with bankruptcies, restructurings, etc.

What do you think? To what extent can law firms pick up the slack for Manhattan's flagging financial tenants? And are there any other types of businesses that could also increase in prominence as a source of demand for space?