Three-quarters of lawyers believe work environments contribute to job satisfaction – one reason firms are investing in innovative, holistic work-spaces, writes Grania Langdon-Down

Law firms are ahead of the media and financial sectors when it comes to designing their workplaces – but they could still be losing out on productivity by not being clever enough, according to new research.


In a survey of more than 200 managers in the three sectors by architects Gensler, just 3% of legal respondents complained that their workplace environment was ‘poor’, compared with 31% in the media and 21% in the financial services (see [2005] Gazette, 8 September, 4). However, 22% believed they would be more productive if their workplace was improved.

But, if that is the case, it is not for want of trying – if any of the recent high-profile moves by top City law firms are anything to go by. Allen & Overy ran a trial of different styles of working – both private office and open plan – before making its final decisions on the design of its new headquarters in Bishops Square in Spitalfields.


Clifford Chance’s one million square feet of offices in Canary Wharf includes a health club with a sky-lit 20-metre lap pool, a 257-seat auditorium, as well as ‘The Street’ – which contains a ‘well-being’ centre, travel office, prayer room, restaurant, coffee bar and convenience store.


At Olswang, those responsible for the move to the London firm’s striking headquarters in 90 High Holborn in 2002 visited about 30 law offices here and in the US to see what other firms were doing, and who they were using.


For Norton Rose, the concrete and steel shell of its new building in the More London development near London Bridge may only just be starting to take shape, but work on the internal design is already intense. ‘You would be amazed at the plethora of advisers one needs to build an office. It is extraordinary,’ remarks Deirdre Walker, the firm’s London managing partner.


The new ten-storey building is due to be handed over next summer, ready to be fitted out for the move in early autumn 2007. With the firm currently spread over five sites, it cannot come soon enough for Ms Walker, who has a ten-minute walk between her offices in the litigation department in Moorgate and the corporate finance section in Kempson House in Camomile Street. ‘To be honest, it is no way to run a business. One of the ways a business like ours grows is cross-selling, and it is far easier to do that when you see people on a daily basis.


‘The new building will be a real statement – not in a flashy sense, because that is not the way we are, but in the way it will reflect the confidence we have in ourselves. It will enable us to move forward and play to our strengths.’


Lawrence Graham has also taken out a lease for 125,000 square feet of offices in the More London development.


The survey’s findings on the importance of the working environment to productivity, job satisfaction, innovation, recruitment and retention has some important messages for law firms. Just over three-quarters of the legal respondents believed their work environment was very important to their sense of job satisfaction, with 30% saying it was a contributing factor in their decision to accept or reject a job. However, only 47% thought their offices had been planned to support business objectives or job function.


Gary Wheeler, Gensler’s director of workplace, says: ‘Law is based on precedent, which means change in the legal profession is very slow. In America, for instance, firms are reluctant to do anything unless their peers are doing the same thing. They are willing to go a little further than another firm, but they are not usually willing to leap.’


The British, on the other hand, have leapt, he says, because the huge cost of real estate in London means firms now see work space as a way of increasing productivity and supporting business strategy goals instead of just as an overhead.


‘Clifford Chance is a very good example of this,’ he says. ‘They know that their staff work very long hours, weekends, nights, and so they have gone out of their way to make sure it is an environment that supports not only how they work but also enhances their private life. It takes as much stress as possible away on-site, by enabling them to get laundry done, go to the doctor and work-out at the gym, so that when staff go home, they can relax.’


Olswang spent £13 million fitting out its new headquarters, bringing the firm’s 520 staff spread across three different sites under one roof for the first time. Milan Dalal, head of business development, says: ‘You get the best out of your staff if you give them the things they need to get their work done – the better the facilities, the better the results. This building is the best testament to this firm’s culture and forward-looking attitudes. However, you can’t attribute all productivity to a building. At the end of the day, the building reflects our people and our culture, not the other way around.’


Andrew Clarke, managing partner of Allen & Overy’s Bishops Square project, says it would be very difficult to measure the return on a firm’s investment in new offices. ‘What is most important about your offices is that it enables you to do the best work you can for your clients. But I am not sure you can measure whether moving office or the way you have designed it has tangibly increased your productivity. You can probably test morale a bit more clearly.’


While many law firms are adventurous in their designs, some trends provoke a wry smile – including the idea of the paperless office. John Routledge, Olswang’s director of facilities, says: ‘We would all love to be paperless but it is a long way off. We moved 13 miles of files when we came here.’


Ms Walker agrees: ‘Everyone aspires to paperless offices – I will believe it when I see it.’


The other trend that provokes mixed feelings is the move to open-plan offices. The Gensler survey found that private offices remain a ‘valued status symbol’ among lawyers, with the law the only sector where most professionals still sit in private offices.


Mr Wheeler says open plan does not necessarily save square footage, because it allows more space for team rooms, ‘head down’ rooms and break-out areas. But he has found most law firms are holding back anyway. ‘Generally, internal design is for offices occupied by two people, such as a partner and associate. There is a strong mentor/trainee relationship in UK law firms, which we don’t find in other locations. You would never find a partner in America sharing an office with an associate – under any conditions – although some of our American clients are adopting it here in London.’


One firm which did take the plunge into open plan is Eversheds, which now has a 100% open-plan layout in Cardiff, Newcastle and Cambridge, with its Leeds office soon to follow suit. The plan is for all its offices, including London, to become fully open plan when they refurbish or move. Alan Meredith, regional managing partner in Cardiff, says the change has been a great aid to team working and has been accepted by staff ‘almost universally, though there are a few who would like their offices back’.


However, Clifford Chance, Allen & Overy, Olswang and Norton Rose have all opted to keep private offices. Ms Walker says: ‘We piloted open plan with our property people in our Broad Street office, and it is not for us. Lawyers need to be able to concentrate. So we will have multi-occupied offices, divided by partitions but with glass fronts to let the light flow into the area for the support services, who will be working more open plan. The building is designed so that as many offices as possible, predominantly for fee-earners, will have views over the river. We are not a hierarchical firm, so it won’t be a case of partners having the best views.’


However it is designed, fitting out a new office is a big investment. Ms Walker says: ‘We spend a lot of time in our offices, so we need to make sure that they are comfortable for our staff. We signed the deal for the new building when the market was quite flat and the net effect is we have a three-year rent-free period from when we take it next autumn, which will pay for the fit-out – so, it washes its face.’


The emphasis on workplace design chimes with the survey’s findings that 58% of the legal respondents felt they were bound to their desk, but a quarter said they did not feel creative there.


Mr Wheeler says advances in technology mean the wireless option is likely to become the norm within five years, which gives staff greater flexibility to work anywhere. ‘The big change for the future will be the ability to provide more than one place to work,’ he predicts.


Mr Clarke agrees. Allen & Overy will have wireless technology when it moves into its new building at the end of 2006, but it has also kept traditional systems because it did not feel confident relying solely on wireless. However, new IT and document scanning facilities will also enable lawyers to create their desk in any location, although the ‘strong feedback’ from staff about ‘hot desking’ was they want to feel they have their own base.


Richard Jordan, director of Bennett Interior Design, has worked on half-a-dozen projects with law firms over the last five years, with more in the pipeline. They include Herbert Smith’s new offices in Exchange Square, and the refurbishment of its existing headquarters next door. Earlier this month, he completed work on US firm Morrison & Foerster’s move into the former offices of Simmons & Simmons, adding a new conference centre. Future projects include assessing possible moves for Macfarlanes and Clyde & Co.


He maintains that the trend for impressive new offices began towards the end of the 1990s with Linklaters and Lovells, followed by the other magic circle firms. This put design high on the agenda, and this has now rippled down through the top-50 law firms, which saw what was happening and wanted to do the same.


As interest in design has grown, so has the focus on the ‘business psychology’ of changing working environments. Jacqui Harrington, a business psychologist with HHR Associates, says it is vital that firms think through any physical changes to their workspace, because it will impact on the whole way the organisation works.


The design may look superb, she says, and encourage top graduates to join a firm. But it will not work unless the firm understands how altering the workspace changes the way people work. More mobile working raises issues of control, and means building in more trust that people are working, even when they are not at their desk.


She explains: ‘Employees are saying that organisations are giving them cutting-edge technology, but not the training and development to use it properly. There is also the negative side that all this mobile technology can leave employees feeling pressured to be on call 24/7.


‘Law firms want to be seen as the employer of choice within their industry, so they bring in gyms, restaurants and coffee shops. That does encourage young graduates into the organisation, but some feel that the employer is trying to keep them within the building, working even longer hours.’


So the working environment is not just about the physical space, she says. ‘It is about taking into account the right management style, the right career development, satisfaction for the individual employee and the impact on clients.


‘When you are spending millions on a new building, you need to have an understanding about the impact of the changes and its overall effect on the return on your investment, because, at the end of the day, that is what organisations want.’


Grania Langdon-Down is a freelance journalist