How Law Firms Can Reinvent Their Offices to Retain Talent
The law office is at a pivotal moment. The classic office no longer works in the era of hybrid work, and yet it’s never been more important to have a workplace that makes attorneys feel connected to their firm. So how can the office adapt?
That question has guided Teknion’s multi-city investigation into the legal sector. What follows is their first report on the initial cache of cities, based on conversations with a cohort of professionals in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, New York City, Toronto, and Washington, D.C. They told Teknion about the challenges of working in the legal industry today and the new demands being placed on the workplace as a result.
The Methodology
Teknion hosted provocative discussions with key practitioners in the legal profession. Participants included attorneys, legal administrators, IT professionals, and members of the A+D community. Five insights emerged from our conversations:
1. Getting Intentional About Employee Wellbeing, Hospitality, and Sustainability
Stress-reducing policies and practices are a must for any firm that wants to be a good sustainable partner to its employees. Offices have adopted a more generous range of amenities, balancing individual well-being needs with firm-wide sustainability demands. Well-being rooms, focus areas, lounges, and cafés help manage individuals’ varying energy levels throughout the day. A more welcoming environment coupled with intentional destinations can create a broader sense of choice for people, making the workplace feel less prescriptive.
“Well-being should happen everywhere. Intentionally.”
“Planning for gender-neutral restrooms is a huge shift. It’s not a code requirement yet. It’s a business decision.”
2. Office Technology is an Equity and Inclusion Amenity
The emphasis on technology includes designing an equitable and inclusive work environment, whether through incorporating richer visual displays or supporting a broader set of acoustical needs. Technology becomes an amenity. The options range from a maximized individual tech experience—sound booths and one-touch connectivity—to well-outfitted medium-scale places to rich multipurpose room capabilities. A whole-person consideration is consistent across the scale. The omnipresent state of amplified acoustics—escalated voices or projections from speakers—makes sound an active element to design with.
“They want to walk in, plug in, and hit the button.”
“There is no paper, there are no file cabinets. We do not print.”
“Rooms that can support massive technology that get people together and are large enough to hold large groups are a huge amenity.”
3. Design Excellence, Not Opulence
A flight to design quality is underway, with firms hoping to attract and retain top talent while accommodating growth. This means a keen attention to well-crafted detail, not a display of opulence. The attention to detail is shared firm-wide, creating an additional equitable experience for all associates. Amenity spaces are curated to their application, and firm culture is reflected on a local scale. Firms are right-sizing to meet the needs of hybrid work.
“Quality over quantity. You can downsize, you can lose space, but make it a nice space that people want to come to.”
“While the design on the surface may seem opulent, it’s really not.”
“There is a greater awareness of the benefits of furniture. Historically, furniture was more about a sense of presence and legacy. Now there is a greater appreciation for sit-to-stand, cable management, even the smaller things such as how you charge your phone and articulating monitor arms.”
4. Why Talent Stays Home
Fissures have formed within the workforce that cut across economic, generational, geographical, and onboarding discrepancies. The relative affordability of working from home or the office has generational and geographical influences. Home caregiver options also affect access to the office, in addition to the ongoing negotiation of commute time versus viable billable hours. An associate’s initial orientation to the office—the means of onboarding—establishes their early relationship with the office, be it a physical and traditional onboarding process or virtual. Talent’s connection to the office begins with the client and the practice and includes access to partners and other associates.
“We don’t allow virtual onboarding. It’s becoming more popular that we have attorneys who will be fully virtual. So they fly in and go through a very traditional onboarding process.”
“We are blaming the hybrid work dynamic for a lot of the cultural issues.”
5. Reinforcing Attorneys’ Physical Connection to the Firm
An office that’s designed with an eye on circulation and proximity can help link people and stimulate workflow and culture—but only if those people are in the office to begin with. Attorneys who prize the flexibility of remote work have become more prone to job swap because their connection to the firm is not getting regularly reinforced. More remote work equals less connection with the office, resulting in diminished office culture, more turnover, and a threat to firm succession. Part of the challenge now for the law office is to give people a reason to come back—and the traditional way of doing things may not be enough.
“You can never, ever duplicate face-to-face. You just can’t.”
“People want personalized space.”
This report marks the beginning of an in-depth investigation into the evolving landscape of the legal profession. Stay tuned as we share more findings that will help law firms redefine their spaces, strengthen connections, and thrive in this new era of hybrid work.
