2024 Bright Insight

conference and video rooms. Many firms are adapting these spaces into lounges and multifunctional areas that can accommodate transitional work which, in turn, promotes a more socially-focused office space, allows for greater workspace density and better enables firm culture development. Another interesting workplace strategy that’s growing in popularity is the use of non-contiguous floors. Some firms have begun placing attorney workspaces and client-focused spaces on higher, more expensive floors while placing legal and support staff on lower, less expensive floors within the same building. Single-sized offices may have the impact of increasing workspace density, but they are a common strategy among many firms regardless of office space strategy because they offer greater flexibility for attorney growth, promotions and adjacency requirements. In general, law firms are moving toward fewer different sizes of attorney offices, but not all firms or all of a firm’s offices are filled with single-sized offices.

Survey respondents indicate approximately half of spaces are being built out with single-sized offices, more so among smaller firms than larger ones. That said, there are several reasons that a firm may continue to have multiple sizes of attorney offices, including: the current level of construction costs associated with changing layouts in existing space; company culture and attorney politics; higher operating leverage ratios requiring larger partner offices; and smaller firms or offices moving into space that was already built out for a previous tenant that utilized multiple office sizes. Typically, it’s not financially feasible to renovate existing space and change office layouts. When moving into new space, however, there is greater proclivity to move toward single-sized offices.

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