We may well be on our way to a brave new officeless world. COVID has shown many businesses — including law firms — that they don’t need the real estate footprints they once thought they did.
But we’re not there quite yet.
The physicality of an attorney’s personalized workspace plays into the mystique of a successful lawyer. I vividly recall the Biglaw call back interviews my 2L year and, like many law students, I was duly impressed with the partner offices I was trotted around to. The corner offices with views of Central Park, the buttery leather couches that clearly cost what translated to a year’s rent for me, even the “messy” offices that were piled with more paper than I’d ever seen in one place still gave an aura of their vastness. And all that for a long time helped define what I considered success. As an associate, meeting in a partner’s office was akin to getting called to the principal’s and I always sat up a little straighter, plastered a smile on my face, and was on my best behavior. I can imagine I’d ever be comfortable enough to invade a partner’s sanctum without them looking on and do my own work.
But that’s exactly what Freshfields is telling their attorneys they should be doing. The London base of the Magic Circle firm is moving to a new office later this year (the move was delayed due to COVID), and as reported by Legal Cheek, the new space is believed to be about 20 percent smaller.
Perhaps in response to this new reality, the London office is rolling out an “office release system,” wherein junior attorneys can use a partner’s office, if that partner is working from home that day:
“If you’re not there, you give your office up”, London managing partner Claire Wills told the website Legal Week (£), while another partner, who isn’t named, said lockdown had shown that “people do not need rooms full of paper and offices in the traditional sense.”
They added:
“I used to think I could not work without precedents around me but it’s more a comfort blanket. We’ve been at home without any of this stuff and most people are busy.”
But lest you think this transition will be seemless, a source at the firm says some people are “quite territorial about rooms and desks.” Which isn’t terribly surprising. It’ll be fascinating to see how this plays out long term.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).