Johnson Pope moves Clearwater office
By Breanne Williams
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Apr 11, 2023

Law firm Johnson Pope has relocated to a new office in Clearwater for the first time in more than four decades.

The firm moved into a new space at 311 Park Place Blvd. The new office will accommodate 26 attorneys and 28 staff members, according to Johnson Pope. The move comes shortly after the law firm announced a new office lease in downtown Tampa.

The firm had had an office at 911 Chestnut Street in Clearwater for 45 years. The founding partners at Johnson Pope purchased the property in early 1978 and built the office building. In 1982 and 1988, the firm expanded the footprint of the Chestnut Street office. It sold the building in 2018 for $3.2 million, according to a Pinellas County deed.

An entity linked to Churchill Stateside Group, a Clearwater-based real estate finance firm, bought the building and has been leasing the space to the firm since the sale.

Darryl Richards, managing partner of Johnson Pope, told the Tampa Bay Business Journal the new office — while relatively similar in size to the former location at 15,409 square feet — allows the firm to expand thanks to its more open floor plan. Richards said he was surprised when looking for a new space in Clearwater, and more recently in Tampa, at how much demand there was for office space in Tampa Bay.

In Clearwater, Johnson Pope looked specifically for an office with an open floor plan, more natural lighting rather than artificial light and a design with “more glass,” Richards said. The new office also has an open balcony on the front and back sides.

Richards said they still have a “fair number of people” who prefer working in the office each day, while others prefer a hybrid schedule where they come in at least three days a week. He said the firm’s preference for an open floor plan has shifted over the last few years.

Richards said he believes the professional and legal community will continue to have individual office spaces for lawyers due to demands for privacy — especially now that professionals utilize Zoom and Microsoft Teams for calls. Lawyers need to ensure their meetings are not overheard and that the privacy of everyone on the call is protected.

“In our line of work, there will always be some aspect where you need to have those individual spaces, but having more glass storefront style with more outside lighting coming in and more visibility, I do think that lends itself to collaboration and just collegiality, people seeing each other and saying hi and talking,” Richards said. “I still think that’s important.”