03.19 Legal Briefs - LSAG Newsletter

The Law Firm of the Future is Happening Now BY TARA ROSCOE

Change on the Horizon Law firms have been under enormous pressure to evolve their workspaces to align with the vast changes that are happening now, and will only continue in the future, to the practice of law. Several sources, including Cushman & Wakefield’s past issues of Legal Briefs, have suggested that the pressure on billing rates (moving to fixed fees), the increase of commoditized work / outsourcing tasks, and competition to attract top talent are of primary concern and will impact both processes, operations, and inevitably, how law firms are designed. Tech savvy younger associates who are hungry for opportunities to learn and be mentored within collegial collaborative teams will add additional pressure on firms to evolve and embrace more progressive work styles and settings. Outside the legal sector, clients in industries such as finance, technology, and media, have worked with their designers to reimagine and reinvent their work environments to support rapidly evolving businesses. For law, a more risk adverse industry, the growing pains appear heftier. As US law firms have looked to densification strategies such as single size offices and targeted efficiency models of 600 square feet per attorney or less, they are increasingly seeking insight on how to better evolve their workstyles to adapt. Too often, they are caught between tradition (and reinforcing hierarchy) and a desire for innovation and change. In an attempt to push their own boundaries and seek more progressive workstyles, law firms can learn from several successful workplace design precedents.

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