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Are firms wasting their office space?
Huge tenancy fees coupled with greater flexible working arrangements could lead to many reducing their overall office count over the next 12 months. Here, Lawyers Weekly throws the question at firms.
Emma Musgrave
There are two sides of the coin when it comes to whether firms have plans to reduce the office footprint they currently occupy, or, maintain it in 2021.
Others don’t think so. Instead, they’re doing the reverse and maximising the success they’ve seen over the past 12 months to grow their office numbers.
To decipher what law firms in the Australian market are doing on this front, Lawyers Weekly put the question to some: is the firm intending to keep the same amount of office space or reduce it in 2021 and beyond?
Below are their responses.
“As a result of the pandemic, we have an exciting opportunity to re-imagine the future of work and the role of our offices,” said Australian executive partner Andrew Pike.
“The right size of our office footprint will evolve out of that process.”
“As part of our HW Evolve project, we are considering what office space may be required for our business to continue to grow and successfully operate,” said managing partner Tony MacVean.
“The physical office will remain an important part of our culture and offering to clients and our people, particularly for learning, collaboration, connection and socialising. We are likely to look to redesign how we use space to support these goals.”
Maddocks
“In the 12 months before COVID-19 hit, we had expanded our office space in Canberra and Melbourne and were looking at expanding our office space in Sydney to deal with the continuing growth of the firm,” chief executive David Newman said.
“As we have kept our people employed during COVID-19 and are now actively recruiting, we don’t see any need at this moment to consider reducing our footprint.
“The issue we are looking at instead is whether we need to reconfigure our existing office space to better accommodate the nature of work to be undertaken in the office environment and to continue to provide a safe workplace during the rest of the pandemic and in light of what we expect to be a higher level of longer-term flexible arrangements.”
MinterEllison
“The ways people are working, and the space they will need and want in the office, have all changed,” said CEO at the time of the question being posed, Annette Kimmitt.
“It is very likely we’ll use less space going forward in our major locations but more important is the nature of the space and we’re actively working on how we ensure our offices create the right environment for our people and for collaboration with clients.”
Emma Musgrave
Emma Musgrave (née Ryan) is the managing editor, professional services at Momentum Media.
Emma has worked for Momentum Media since 2015, including five years spent as the editor of the company's legal brand - Lawyers Weekly. Throughout her time at Momentum, she has been responsible for breaking some of the biggest stories in corporate Australia. In addition, she has produced exclusive multimedia and event content related to the company's respective brands and audiences.
Prior to joining Momentum Media, Emma worked in breakfast radio, delivering news to the Central West region of NSW, before taking on a radio journalist role at Southern Cross Austereo, based in Townsville, North Queensland.
She holds a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) degree from Charles Sturt University.
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