For a law firm, choosing office space is about more than square metres and location. The premises need to receive clients, accommodate confidential conversations, and signal trust before the meeting has even begun. The requirements are noticeably different from those of an ordinary office tenant, and that shapes both which buildings are realistic options and how the space should be fitted out.
We regularly see that law firms who contact us have different priorities than other tenants. Here we go through the considerations that come up again and again, and which parts of Oslo tend to fit best.
1. Representativeness and client reception
For a law firm, the reception area is one of the most important rooms in the entire office. Clients form an impression of the firm the moment they walk in, long before they meet the lawyer handling their case. Several of Oslo's larger firms have built out reception and client areas as their own dedicated zone, separate from where staff work day to day.
A good example is Advokatfirmaet Schjødt's premises at Tordenskiolds gate 12, where a restored marble hall serves as the welcome area leading into a dedicated client floor with meeting rooms and reception together. There, the material choice is natural stone, black gneiss, combined with dark-stained ash, a pairing that recurs in this type of reception area precisely because it signals quality and permanence.
A smaller or mid-sized law firm doesn't need a setup on that scale, but the principle holds. A clearly separated client zone, clear signage, and a room where visitors can wait without a view into day-to-day work make the office feel professional regardless of the firm's size.
2. Private offices or open-plan
The legal industry has traditionally favoured private, cellular offices. Work that demands concentration and confidentiality suits closed rooms well, and Norwegian workplace research broadly supports this. A study by the National Institute of Occupational Health (Stami) that followed more than 3,400 Norwegian workers over four years found that employees in private offices report a higher degree of control over their working day than those in shared or open-plan layouts. A 2014 InFact survey conducted for the consultancy Vivento found something similar: only 15 percent of Norwegian employees feel more effective in open-plan offices, against 44 percent who say private offices give the best working environment.
At the same time, there's a clear shift underway among Oslo's largest firms. When Thommessen moved to Vika in 2021, it moved every lawyer and partner into fully open-plan space, paired with quiet rooms for focused work and a staffed coffee bar as a social hub for staff. Managing partner Sverre Tyrhaug has described the move as a cultural choice rather than a spatial one, and stresses it wasn't done to save money. The Swedish firm Vinge made a similar move and has described confidentiality in open-plan as manageable, though some staff have reported more fatigue over time.
The takeaway is that there's no single right answer. Private offices remain the norm and suit firms with a lot of confidential one-to-one work, while open-plan setups can work when paired with genuine quiet rooms and clear routines. Whichever model you choose, space planning should be grounded in actual need per employee. See our article on how many square metres of office per employee for concrete guidance.
3. Soundproofing and confidentiality
Where other industries might treat soundproofing as a matter of comfort, for lawyers it's also a matter of compliance. Confidentiality is a fundamental duty for lawyers, set out among other places in Regler for god advokatskikk (the Norwegian code of conduct for lawyers), point 2.3.1, which states that a client's ability to give the lawyer information the lawyer is then obliged not to pass on is centrally important to the profession and a prerequisite for trust. The duty isn't limited to the lawyer alone; it extends to associates and other staff.
The question of whether open-plan offices are compatible with this duty has actually gone before the Norwegian Bar Association's ethics committee (Advokatforeningens etikkutvalg) twice. In a 2006 opinion, the committee advised against ordinary legal practice in open-plan offices, citing the risk that unauthorised people could gain access to client information. In an updated 2019 opinion, the committee nuanced that position: open-plan is not in itself incompatible with the duty of confidentiality, provided the firm puts in place measures and sound routines, including for phone use and document access.
In practice, this means soundproofed meeting rooms and offices aren't simply an interior-design choice for a law firm, but a precondition for running client work properly. When choosing premises, it's worth assessing both the building's technical soundproofing between rooms and how many closed rooms you actually need for client conversations, regardless of whether the rest of the office is open-plan or cellular.
4. Meeting rooms with weight
Negotiations, signings and client meetings call for meeting rooms that can carry both the scale and the seriousness of what happens in them. Oslo's largest firms tend to have several categories of meeting space: smaller rooms for internal discussions, larger client meeting rooms near reception, and in some cases a dedicated arbitration room. Schjødt, for instance, has a dedicated arbitration room in its Tordenskiolds gate building, while several of the other large firms regularly host arbitration events in their own premises.
For a smaller law firm, the point isn't to replicate that scale, but to ensure enough meeting rooms of the right size, well soundproofed, and positioned so clients don't have to cross working areas to reach them. An office with too few or too small meeting rooms quickly becomes a bottleneck once several matters need handling at once.
5. Prestige addresses: Vika, Tjuvholmen and the city centre
The address is part of a law firm's brand, and that's clearly reflected in where Oslo's largest players choose to sit. Vika, Aker Brygge and Tjuvholmen have long been the preferred districts, while Bjørvika has emerged as a newer alternative with the same kind of proximity to the finance and legal community.
According to Spacefinder's own 2025 figures, office rents in Oslo range from under NOK 2,000 per square metre a year in the outer districts to over NOK 6,000 in the most sought-after central areas. Looking specifically at the city centre, leases signed in 2025 show a range of roughly NOK 3,200 to 4,750 per square metre a year, averaging around NOK 4,000 for good, modern premises. On top of that come common costs (felleskostnader), which typically run NOK 400 to 700 per square metre.
Office vacancy across Oslo, Asker and Bærum stood at 7.6 percent at the start of 2026, according to DNB Næringsmegling. The most sought-after parts of the CBD, including Vika, Aker Brygge and Tjuvholmen, have historically had significantly lower vacancy than the market overall, down to 3 to 4 percent at times, though that gap has narrowed over the past couple of years. Good premises in these districts still move quickly, so tenants who want that kind of address should plan their search well in advance.
For a law firm, the choice is about more than location on its own. Proximity to the finance sector and to other law firms creates a clustering effect that makes these districts self-reinforcingly attractive. Take a look at available office space in Vika and office space in the city centre with us.
6. Longer time horizons, a higher bar for moving
Law firms move less often than many other office tenants, and when they do move, it tends to be a decision made with a long horizon in mind. Wikborg Rein signed a long lease for around 8,500 square metres at Dronning Mauds gate 11, with built-in expansion options. Selmer signed a ten-year lease in 2023 for its new premises on Ruseløkkveien. Agreements like these aren't the exception among the largest firms; they're closer to the norm.
The reasons are layered. Fitting out a law office is often costly and bespoke, the address is part of the firm's identity to the outside world, and moving an entire partnership is genuinely hard to coordinate internally. That means law firms typically weigh a move more carefully and less often than other businesses, and tend to be willing to commit for longer to secure the right premises in the right district. When entering into such an agreement, it's especially important to understand the terms of the commercial lease itself, since the length of commitment raises the stakes of a poorly drafted contract compared with a shorter lease.
Where are Oslo's largest law firms based today?
Looking at where Norway's five largest law firms by revenue have located, a clear pattern emerges. Schjødt, the country's largest firm, is based at Tordenskiolds gate 12 by Rådhusplassen, in a rehabilitated building from 1937. Wikborg Rein sits at Dronning Mauds gate 11 in Vika. Thommessen moved in 2021 to the new-build on Ruseløkkveien, in the same district, while BAHR is based at Tjuvholmen allé 16 on Tjuvholmen. Wiersholm sits at Dokkveien 1 on Aker Brygge.
Ruseløkkveien was dubbed "the new lawyer street" by the property publication NE.no back in 2018, after several large firms relocated there, among them Selmer, which moved to number 14 in the street in 2023. The pattern is clear: Oslo's largest law firms cluster within a relatively small area along the inner fjord edge, from Tjuvholmen and Aker Brygge, through Vika, and up toward Rådhusplassen. That clustering only reinforces why these particular districts are so consistently attractive to the legal industry specifically.
A few practical pointers to close
Start your search by defining how much of the firm's work genuinely requires closed rooms, and how much can work in more open settings. That gives a more precise space requirement than simply taking your current office as the baseline.
Treat soundproofing as part of the technical review of the building, not as an interior-design detail to sort out afterwards. A building with poor soundproofing between rooms is difficult and costly to fully fix later.
Allow plenty of time if Vika, Aker Brygge or Tjuvholmen is on the table. Vacancy in these districts is low, and the best premises are often let before they reach the open market.
At Spacefinder, we help law firms map their needs and find premises that match both the practical and the representative demands of the profession. The service is free for tenants. Feel free to get in touch for a no-obligation needs assessment.
Sources: Advokatbladet, Kapital Jus, Rett24, Advokatwatch, Finansavisen, the Norwegian Bar Association's ethics committee (opinions of 8 December 2006 and 8 May 2019, advokatforeningen.no), DNB Næringsmegling (dnbnaringsmegling.no), the National Institute of Occupational Health (stami.no), Dagens Næringsliv (on the InFact/Vivento survey), Ledsten Arkitektur, Entra, Storebrand Eiendom, and Spacefinder's own articles on Oslo office rents in 2025.
