Todd DeGarmo is the CEO of STUDIOS Architecture, a global architecture firm with 185 architects and designers in five offices. STUDIOS, whose early clients included Apple and SGI, has recently begun applying design principles from outside the legal industry to law firm office design. Todd and his firm have helped a number of law firms rethink their space needs in light of a changing environment. He recently sat down to speak with us in our Washington DC office.
Hildebrandt Conversations February 2010
Rethinking Legal Office Space
Todd DeGarmo is the CEO of STUDIOS Architecture, a global architecture firm with 185 architects and designers in five offices. STUDIOS, whose early clients included Apple and SGI, has recently begun applying design principles from outside the legal industry to law firm office design. Todd and his firm have helped a number of law firms rethink their space needs in light of a changing environment. He recently sat down to speak with us in our Washington DC office.
How do law firms differ from other industries when it comes to office space?
Todd: Business in general has changed dramatically over the past 20-30 years, yet law firms tend to move more slowly. The difference in space utilization has grown vast in the last five years, in particular. A decade ago, advertising agencies, accounting firms and law firms all pretty much looked the same. But now, whereas law firms have on average 500 square feet per person, other professional service firms average 150-225 square feet per person – and this is even before you consider hotelling.¹ In the corporate world, we’re down to an average of about 190 square feet per employee. A lot of these changes are driven by worldwide standards. The space allocated per person in Europe tends to be lower than in the US. In Asia it’s even lower. In short, the law firm office space paradigm is losing.
¹Hotelling is a practice where an employee has no permanent office space and instead uses flexible, shared space when in the office.
Why have law firms been slower to respond to these trends?
Todd: Traditionally the biggest difference between the corporate world and law firms has been that in corporations people are looking for efficiencies while in law firms they are focused on how much can they can bill. Currently, law firm space facilitates a heads down, don’t bother me and don’t interrupt me environment. The floors are almost monastic so that people can focus on billing as much as possible. So given the heads down mentality, it’s not inappropriate space. It is a very internally-focused model however.
What drives the difference in space between law firms and other professional service firms?
Todd: Generally speaking, the offices people occupy are much bigger in law firms. Almost no other type of organization now has “partner size” offices—even investment banks. Law firms also tend to store more paper and have more public space than other professional service firms.
What are some of the current trends you are seeing with your law firm clients?
Todd: We are increasingly seeing law firms put attorneys in interior space. While long common in New York, we’re also starting to double up associates in perimeter offices in other cities. It’s a phased approach. You start with moving legal assistants out of offices and doubling up junior attorneys. Then over time, senior associates will move to interior offices. I think inevitably law firms will move to single-size offices, where all offices are the same size, regardless of the position of the occupant. The corporate world has made huge efforts to delink status and space but law firms haven’t gotten there yet. In fact, law firms have gotten more hierarchical while other firms have streamlined. Law firms will need to do things like taking legal assistants out of offices, doubling people up, and making offices smaller so they can “densify” and make more efficient use of their space.
What about confidentiality?
Todd: One of the first changes we suggest to law firms is to maintain an office front but make it clear glass. This lets light into the interior space and is an important first step towards creating a more efficient and effective use of space. Law firms have traditionally had concerns around glass walls because of privacy issues. But the clients aren’t in the office space anymore. Besides, if M&A departments in investment banks can work this way, so can lawyers. Investment bankers also have to work with highly confidential information and they do so in space that is much more open. You can design for that.
How expensive is it to design with future densification in mind?
Todd: Two decisions need to be made in the early parts of the design: do you want to design for long term density and do you wish to design for a greater level of flexibility? If you answer yes, instead of designing for a specific program, we design for anything that could happen. The upfront cost for increased densities and flexibility can be 10-15%.
One of the concerns we hear is that people will become demoralized if you make them work in smaller and less private spaces. What effect does densifying space typically have on morale?
Todd: If you’re going to densify, then you have to change the paradigm from the start. You have to make it exciting and interesting. For example, we’ve designed offices so that you go through all these different areas and run into other people before you even get to your own space. This creates a buzz that’s contagious. You have to make the whole experience exciting. When you do that, people like it. They come to the office and it’s exciting to be there.
Another thing to keep in mind is that people have to work in a way that makes them effective. This is especially true as people begin in work in teams—leaders need to be able to be effective and visible. So we design for that as well.
You’re proposing some big changes. What are firms most open to now?
Todd: There are huge differences among firms. Some firms are more likely to double people up and put people in interior space. Very few are willing to go to single size offices. There is a lot of change in support space but very little in attorney space and that’s where the pressure is. But the pushback among attorneys is reasonable given what they’ve been asked to do, which is to crank out as many hours as they can. If you are rewarded for working lots of hours, you don’t want to be distracted. In other types of organizations, there’s a benefit to change that people understand. People sit in the open for a reason. They are able to interact with people and exchange ideas. Changes in space design support collaborative interaction. Right now collaboration is not very important to law firms but this is changing.
Are many of your clients thinking about moving some portion of their space away from the high rent districts in the big cities?
Todd: When rents in Manhattan were $70 per square foot, it was economically easier to support the idea of housing everyone in prime space. But as rents started getting up to $130-140 per square foot, it became more of an issue. The problem with moving a part of the firm to a less expensive area is that someone has to want to lead that group. That’s the barrier. If someone wants to go off and lead the group, then it happens. As rents have fallen significantly though, there is, for now, less pressure to move support off-site.
What we are seeing more of is moving to lower floors or next door. One area we find fascinating is case management and litigation support. Twenty years ago, people used interior rooms for case rooms. Then firms started to put these functions somewhere else, such as on lower floors. The next step has been to make very flexible space. The challenge with these functions is once the paper goes somewhere, it tends to stay there. So in flexible space, we control the paper through a staging area right off the freight elevators. Someone decides where the paper goes and the file rooms, case rooms, library—all of it ends up here. It becomes a knowledge management center. Everything is scanned down to the individual document. The space is laid out as a factory for documents and attorneys accept the fact that the case and staff may be remote from their office.
Sustainability is very big among corporations right now. Where do law firms stand on this issue?
Todd: Most law firms spend toward the top of what people would spend on office space. At their budgets, there is no extra cost to make it a LEED Gold² certified space. Every law firm we’re designing for is going for some level of certification. I will say that our clients are probably on the more progressive end of the spectrum, but we think there will be more external pressures on law firms to do this. For example, we’re seeing RFPs that are asking about sustainability. Also, younger employees often view this as a positive thing about the firm.
²LEED certification levels are: Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum.
What is the most likely future scenario for law firm space?
Todd: I think as law firms begin to adapt more to clients and there is more pressure for alternative billing, we’ll see more interest in some alternative space arrangements. As firms start to realize that the more efficient they are, the more profit they make, it will necessarily change the workflow. Teams will become more nimble and change more quickly. When we see that sort of change in an organization, we see more of a group dynamic and less of an individual dynamic. Space will need to facilitate collaboration so that firms can become more efficient and profitable.
Todd DeGarmo joined STUDIOS in 1989 and founded the firm’s New York office in 1995. His work focuses on helping emerging companies envision new work environments that support and integrate their culture, work processes, technology and brand. Todd’s work includes the Washington DC offices of Baker Botts and Morgan Lewis, the New York offices of Orrick, as well as the award-winning Dow Jones headquarters in New York. For more information on STUDIOS Architecture, visit their website at www.studiosarchitecture.com.
