As law firm office space shrinks, natural light is in and 'capacious' corner offices are gone
Law firms moving to new offices are often saving on space, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they will save money. (Illustration from Shutterstock)
Law firms moving to new offices are often saving on space, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they will save money, according to a story in the New York Times on the BigLaw office market.
Firms that move to newer offices are paying a higher price tag per square foot. That means that firms “may wind up paying the same amount” or even more, said Thomas Fulcher, a vice chairman at Savills, a real estate services agency, in an interview with the New York Times.
Fulcher said the new benchmark is about 600 square feet per lawyer, compared to 1,000 square feet in the past.
Now, physical libraries “have gone the way of the landline and the Dictaphone,” and walls of filing cabinets are no longer needed. Also gone are “capacious corner offices,” which have been replaced with “collaborative spaces and multimedia-equipped conference rooms.”
“Lawyers of all seniority, including the so-called rainmakers, now sit in offices of similar size with uniform furniture,” the article reports.
Work-at-home policies are also affecting office size. Chapman and Cutler assigns offices to lawyers who commit to coming to spending three days per week at the office. Those spending less time there will have office space, “but not necessarily one with their name on the door,” said Kelley M. Bender, the firm’s chief operating partner.
New offices often emphasize natural light and may incorporate glass doors instead of wood, audio and video technology, plenty of electrical outlets, air filtration, acoustics and better artificial lighting.
“And recreation has come to the fore,” the New York Times reports. “Few will own up to adding a foosball table, but Venable does have a regulation bocce ball court in its Washington office.”
