Posters of Monet's water lilies, portraits of past senior partners and cartoons of judges may still adorn the walls of the average law firm -- but others have moved on.

Staid artworks have been consigned to the basement -- or bin -- and modern, environment-enhancing works hang in their place.Perhaps a phenomenon of the boom times of the last ten years, the move from dusty prints to contemporary works seems to be part of the change towards a more corporate image for many firms.

For others, it allows partners to bring their passion into the workplace and permits firms to give something back to local communities.Curated collections are now common among larger City law firms.

Others use art galleries as a backdrop to client events, sponsor exhibitions, and help young artists by exhibiting works and sponsoring awards.For a few firms, the dead space in their basements has now become a vibrant area given over to permanent art galleries.Keith Salway, partnership secretary at Clifford Chance -- which now has around 600 art works adorning its office's public spaces -- says the firm's active interest in art began when it moved to a new building in 1992.

Having culled the inherited works down to around 50 to 100 'good-quality English prints', the firm set about building a collection for the new office walls.'Our objective, when we moved here, was not to have a museum quality collection or to invest.

Our rule is to have things on the wall that make the day go better,' he says.

'It would be inconceivable not to have a good range of works on the walls.'The firm has now branched out into hosting an annual postgraduate exhibition and award.City-based DLA last year sponsored its first annual graduate exhibition for fine artists.

Although the overall winner received a £5,000 cash prize, the firm also bought other works from the five finalists.According to DLA's Helen Obi, the idea for the award came when the firm moved t o its new London headquarters and was looking for artworks which said 'something about where we were going'.

She says the award is likely to become a regular annual event now.

Clifford Chance -- which spends around £15,000 a year on art with an average value of £300 to £400 per work -- has two part-time curators, Jane Hindley and Nigel Frank, who also arrange exhibitions within the firm and run its 200-strong art club.Mr Frank -- who also curates and buys for a number of other large corporations -- says there has been an upsurge of interest in art from businesses.

He says: 'The prominence of visual arts in contemporary culture means art has become a much more central part of people's lives.

As younger ones join firms and reach seniority, art becomes more central to their lives and to their everyday environment.' Five years ago, Mr Franks adds, he would not have tried nudes on Clifford Chance, but visual awareness is now generally better than it was.Russell Lewin, managing partner of Baker McKenzie's London office, which also became involved in collecting when it moved to new offices in 1992, says the firm concentrates on figurative works which, he argues, are more accessible.The firm wants people to leave the offices 'with a positive impression and remember being here', he says.

To prove the point, it has commissioned a 60-foot glass art as backdrop for its reception area and is awaiting delivery of two statues.'Clients, other firms and other influential intermediaries come here and, besides meeting solicitors, their only other impression of the firm will be of the building.

More and more firms are beginning to recognise that the intangible statement made is important although it cannot be measured,' he says.While solicitors and staff at larger firms might be lucky enough to have their own collections and, in Clifford Chance's case, its own art club, others can join the Law Society's art group.

For £15 a year, members enjoy monthly talks on artists, gallery visits, and technical seminars.

The group is also planning an art expedition to the Greek Peleponnese in June.Chairman Tom Butler, a former partner at City firm Holman Fenwick & Willan, says that for lawyers wanting to take their interest in art to the next stage and produce their own, the group's annual exhibition provides a great opportunity to exhibit publicly.

Having now exhibited professionally twice, he says he still remembers his first sale at the group's annual exhibition -- olive trees in Tuscany -- going for £50.Although art may enhance the internal environment for many firms, others see it as a way to reach out to the community.

London-based Edwin Coe has run a charity art exhibition biennially for ten years.Julian Gore, a property partner with responsibility for the exhibition, says the idea arose when the partners realised they had a lot of clients and friends who were artists, and were looking for different ways to entertain clients.The exhibition usually displays 250 to 280 pieces by 30 to 40 artists.

With sales reaching as high as 40% of the works shown, last year the exhibition raised £16,000 for charity.Mr Gore says initially the firm was worried that Royal Academicians would be unhappy to hang next to amateurs.

But now they have more artists than there is space for.

'The exhibition is a nice way of getting clients through the door and I think it makes us seem a bit less stuffy than is often people's impression of solicitors,' he adds.However, for four firms, ad hoc exhibitions have proved insufficient to satisfy their passion for pai ntings and they have gone a step further and opened full-time galleries.

Well known in London, Collyer-Bristow has been running a gallery for nine years.

Senior partner Roger Woolfe says the firm decided to formalise what had been ad hoc exhibitions of clients' works when it moved offices.

'We felt it was an ideal use of dead space where there was no natural light,' he says.The firm now has a part-time curator, Tamar Arnon, and hosts five or six shows a year -- its Christmas show is given over to raising money for the homeless.While the firm charges artists a commission on sales, Mr Woolfe says the gallery is not run to make a huge profit.

It provides an interesting space for marketing events and seminars as well as 'unifying the firm; profit-margins come second.'Mr Woolfe adds: 'When there are openings, a lot of staff come down and buy works.

It is not just the partners and clients.

A lot of people get very excited when a new show opens and they spend a lot of time looking at it.'In Brighton, DMH -- formerly Donne Mileham & Haddock -- has been running an art gallery since 1998.

What started as a temporary exhibition as part of the Brighton festival, which the firm sponsors, has become central to the firm's rebranded image, says partner Mike Long.

Proving the point, the art gallery concept is now being rolled out to the firm's Crawley office.Sole practitioner and self-confessed 'art addict' David Goodman, who practises in London, decided to double-up his office as an art gallery earlier this year.

While it is still early days, Mr Goodman suspects he has already received one instruction because of the gallery.'The pictures enable you to build up much more of a relationship with clients,' he says.

'It also means that people who would just walk past the office now come in to view the works and to talk about the pictures.

I think over time the gallery will enhance the business as well as brightening up clients' lives and giving unknown artists a chance to exhibit.'Arthur Oldham, former senior partner of Ipswich firm Graham & Oldham which merged and became Ashton Graham in 1998, would love to have followed in the family tradition and been an artist rather than a lawyer.Having taken a sabbatical to study art, he says he realised how few spaces there were for artists to exhibit.

To right that wrong, he revamped the firm's basement and opened a gallery.It is hard, he says, to quantify how the firm benefits from the gallery, but he thinks that because it draws people to the building and gains local publicity, it must raise the firm's profile and the brand.When looking at the intangible benefits of art, in keeping up staff morale, connecting with local communities and raising the firm's profile, Collyer -Bristow's Mr Woolfe puts it more bluntly.He finds it sad that some people only know about the firm because of the gallery, though he is sanguine about that state of affairs.

He explains: 'It is better to be known for something, than nothing at all.'