Do open plan offices for law firms really work?

Posted by David on 17 June 2009

Last week I was fortunate enough to attend the Law Symposium hosted by Gensler at Reed Smiths new offices in London's square mile. The foundation for the symposium was the hotly debated 'open plan' or 'cellular' approach to law firm office layout.

During my day to day activities I regularly visit both ends of the spectrum when it comes to law firms. Those magic circle giants whose corridors alone could fit in a small law firm and are lavishly decorated with artwork that needs guidance notes, to high street practices with fake mahogany finishes and whose office space is often shared with a mountain of client files. Needless to say, when it comes to dreaming about which law firm I would work for (if indeed I could) its all to easy to be swayed by the glamour of the large city offices, restaurants, gymnasiums, sleeping pods and clean cut work space.

As for the debate about 'open plan' or 'cellular', I'll happily leave that to the professionals. Gensler have produced an interesting law firm benchmarking survey which looks at the workspaces commonly found within law firms and the impact they have on the employees who work there. It makes for interesting reading with everyone considering more and more the environment they work in and the amenities available as part of their work offering.

For me its interesting to see topics like this falling more and more onto the radar of those in the operational areas of the law firms, with notable contributions and interest from people in the Finance, Human Resources and of course IT departments.

I'm sure that everyone who works in a law firm must have something to say about the environment they work in - love it or hate it?

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