One of the UK and Ireland’s leading risk and insurance law firms is looking to extend its ‘forward-thinking’ London working practices across the rest of its business.

BLM is relocating its 340 City of London staff from offices in London Wall and Leadenhall Street to a single City site in Plantation Place on Tuesday. However, the new office will not have 340 desks. But it will have 'breakout areas and benches'.

London office head Jennette Newman said: ‘We have always been fairly forward thinking in allowing flexibility around our workforce.’ The firm will encourage staff to work flexibly should they wish to, Newman said. 

BLM’s London relocation was prompted by its lease in Salisbury House, London Wall, coming to an end. Newman said the lease event was an opportunity for the firm to think about what it wanted to do with its London offices.

The insurance district in London, she noted, was based in the EC3 postcode and the move enabled the firm to be at the centre of it.

Lease events have become a catalyst for business change among law firms in London, according to a recent report from commercial property consultancy CBRE.

The report says discussions may begin four or five years ahead of any lease event and significant changes are almost always carried out as part of an office move due to difficulties in altering existing layouts.

Newman said the firm, which has 12 offices outside London, was looking ’to roll out the design, layout and policies in London throughout the entire business’. Relocations were ‘not on the agenda, but the firm would be looking to use our office space in a more efficient way’.

The London office, which has piloted a ‘paper-light’ scheme that has led to a drop in its reliance on paper by more than 50%, will ‘lead the way’, she said.