Firms on the moveLast year, Clifford Chance sent tremors through the legal world with the news that it was leaving London's traditional legal centre in the City and heading to Canary Wharf.

Now hordes of firms are packing their pot-plants, files and coffee mugs and heading to better air conditioning.

In the past 18 months, London-based Gouldens, Simmons & Simmons, Withers, KPMG's associated law firm, KLegal, and Nabarro Nathanson have already moved.

City firm Slaughter and May will be in its new site by the end of the year, and Lewis Silkin is taking over Withers' former offices of Fleet Street.

Allen & Overy is looking for new offices; Lovells is biding its time until summer 2002 when it will move to 255,000 sq ft of 'cellular' office space in the City; and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has pre-let an additional 180,000 sq ft behind its existing offices in Fleet Street, which it will take over in August.

Fast-growing US firms are particularly active, such as the London office of Sullivan & Cromwell, which has taken 87,000 sq ft in New Fetter Lane, of which 60,000 sq ft will be sub-let.

London managing partner William Plapinger says the firm has taken more space than it needs, whereas in the US it would let an appropriate space and obtain an 'expansion option' over further floors.

Such options are not available in the UK.

Meanwhile, in Bristol, Clarke Willmott & Clarke moved last October.

Osborne Clarke will move in 2002.

Bevan Ashford is also understood to be edging towards a deal for new offices, as is Eversheds in Cardiff.

In Manchester, Beachcroft Wansbroughs' team has moved to 'spacious' open-plan offices.

And these are just a few of the big firms on the move.

Matthew Chichester, City investment and development director at chartered surveyors CB Hillier Parker in London, says that although the capital is a difficult market - at the moment there is 18 million sq ft of demand for office space against three million sq ft of supply - firms are still having to move to ensure economic growth.

'If firms are optimistic about the market going forward, and their business going forward, but financial development is restricted by lack of space, firms have to move and expand to take on more work,' he adds.

With rents for core City space - the traditional stomping grounds of London firms - now standing at between 50 to 55 per sq foot, with top rents of 60 per sq ft, it is hardly surprising that the likes of Clifford Chance are looking elsewhere for affordable and appropriate sites.

Clifford Chance's official line remains that its move to Canary Wharf was necessitated by the need for space, which could be matched by high-quality facilities for staff and clients.

Many other firms admit that while the option of moving to Canary Wharf was not discounted out of hand, most of them have chosen to remain on safer ground and stay within the general boundaries of the City.

Malcolm Trice, partner in charge of office agency at chartered surveyors Ingleby Trice Kennard, predicts that law firms will continue, as they always have done, to 'seek value'.

He says this may lead more of them to go out of traditional City core areas.

In London, firms may also look to the South Bank or London Bridge as Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers have done.

In Bristol, Osborne Clarke's managing partner, Leslie Perrin, says the firm's move to near Bristol Templesmead railway station is part of the 'whole tilting' of the city's business centre away from the traditional centre, which is increasingly being given over to leisure activities.

Having found itself in the fortunate position of being able to buy a plot of land, Osborne Clarke has also designed its own building.

Mr Perrin says the new building will be 'a joy to work in', and with a 'daring' open atrium he says it will have a 'street feel', especially on the ground floor.

The firm has also taken the unusual step of going 'non-cellular' (open-plan to the rest of us).

Having trailed the idea, most people like it 'as long as they are not on top of each other', he says, adding that it will cost as much, if not more to equip properly the offices on a non-cellular model.

'If you are costs-driven, the environment will be noisy and offer no privacy where research can be done,' Mr Perrin says.

But, wherever firms end up, the process of deciding how much space they will need, and then finding it, can be time consuming.

Charles Pollock, a property partner at City firm Simmons & Simmons, which moved at the end of last year to the landmark CityPoint, says the firm considered moving in 1996 to get more space, and because a number of leases expired.

He said the timeframe gave the firm flexibility to find the right premises and to become the 'anchor tenant' - the key tenant developers used to induce banks to lend money for redevelopment - which meant the firm could secure 'very good terms'.

In the property slump of the early 1990s, landlords fell over one another to give knock-down rents, pay for refits, and give up to two years rent-free.

Those days may be gone, but firms can still strike good deals if they play their cards right.Slaughter and May property partner David Beales, who acted on the firm's recent let of a custom-built office, said typical inducements can still include 15 to 18 months rent free.

The saving on that alone, he says, can be enough nearly to cover the cost of refitting the building, which one surveyor put as high as 70 per sq ft.

And with cost running so high, it is vital that firms get it right and take on enough space to meet their future needs but keep wasted space to a minimum.

Simon Macdonagh, the partner in charge of City firm Lovells' scheduled 2002 move, says the firm brought in 'space planners' to work out that part of the equation.

After an initial audit of the firm, space planners make projections based on the practices' business model, including factors such as changing work patterns, future secretarial and fee-earner numbers, and use of paralegals.

Space auditors then look at shortlisted buildings and work out which floor would hold which function, for example, accountants, human resources, staff facilities, fee earners, and administrative back-up.

After that, comes a 'test fit' in which models calculate how people will fit in to the allocated space.

'When you find out that one 100,000 sq ft building will accommodate 500 people, but another will only take 400 because of design, it becomes clear that space planners are invaluable,' he adds.

Nabarro Nathanson partner Geoffrey Lander puts the picture in blunt monetary terms.

With the aim of reducing its occupancy costs to revenues ratio from 13.5% to 10%, space planning became a key issue.

He says that by rationalising the firm's use of wasted space, it saved 26,500 sq foot - a cost saving of 6,500 per employee per year.And help, with what some say is as stressful an event as death and divorce, may come from an unexpected source.

Mr Macdonagh says firms such as Denton Wilde Sapte, Linklaters, and Freshfields were 'very supportive with help on practical stuff'.

He says, he has also spoken to other firms to offer advice.

One key piece of advice offered by Mr Pollock is to get an internal team - 'which should be more than one person' - in place early and 'empower' them.

'There is no point in 140 partners talking about the colour of the carpets.'And while the hidden benefits of moving offices may be to boost morale, improve recruitment and retention, and open the window to a re-branding exercise (as in the recent case of Withers) it can have its downsides.

Apparently, the trendy blue light atop Slaughters' new building has already received a mixed reaction: some want it on and some want it off.

But, for those lobbying for a change of colour, Mr Beales says one thing is certain - red is not an option.