“In the previous hundred years prior to the recession of 2008 or 2009, there was far less change than there has been since then,” says Timothy Bromiley, a leader of the professional services firms practice group at the architecture firm Gensler. “It's not just saving money, but these changes can increase performance.”

As GlobeSt.com previously reported, Savills Studley's chief economist Heidi Learner said in a recently released report that as law firms continue to explore ways to further reduce expenses, many are considering the use of universal or standard-size offices.

The law firm that has embraced the new look perhaps most readily is Bromiley's client Paul Hastings, which moved in May from its 240,000-square-foot office on 55th Street to 200,000 square feet in the MetLife building in New York. Like most firms, Paul Hastings downsized its footprint and fit roughly the same number of people into a smaller, more efficient space.

Every counsel and partner, including chairman Seth Zachary, has a 140-square-foot office. That's just a quarter of the size of Zachary's former office, the article says. Glass office walls let light into the building's interior. Some associates also sit in 140-square-foot spaces; others have 90-square-foot offices in the internal space once reserved for secretaries' desks. First- and second-year associates work in cubicles in bright rooms facing Manhattan's skyline.

Click here to read the full article on The American Lawyer and check back on GlobeSt.com in the next day or so to read more about “the modern law firm” about reducing budget with real estate and more.

Paul Hastings

With rent for prime commercial real estate rising and revenue growth declining, law firms across the country are coping with rising rents, changing demands and transformative technologies by downsizing their office space. That is according to a recent feature written by GlobeSt.com sister publication, ALM's The American Lawyer.

But a look at the newest offices of notable Am Law 200 firms might make you think otherwise, the article says. The industry, famously slow to let go of long-held traditions, is in the midst of a notable shift in how it manages and designs its real estate.

The change is prompted by several realities, the article says. The price of office space continues to rise—New York's toniest office space can go for more than $100 per square foot; San Francisco, $73 per square foot. Ongoing client pressure to cut fees has firms looking hard at bottom-line costs; firms devoted 7.2% of their revenue to rent and other real estate fees in 2015, according to Citi Private Bank. And staffing changes and other factors mean that 17% of a typical law firm's office space is unused, according to a recent study.

It all means that firm footprints are getting smaller—20%-25% smaller, some architects say—and individual lawyers' offices are shrinking, even as firms try to beef up common areas and add cafes and other perks to attract and keep millennials.

“In the previous hundred years prior to the recession of 2008 or 2009, there was far less change than there has been since then,” says Timothy Bromiley, a leader of the professional services firms practice group at the architecture firm Gensler. “It's not just saving money, but these changes can increase performance.”

As GlobeSt.com previously reported, Savills Studley's chief economist Heidi Learner said in a recently released report that as law firms continue to explore ways to further reduce expenses, many are considering the use of universal or standard-size offices.

The law firm that has embraced the new look perhaps most readily is Bromiley's client Paul Hastings, which moved in May from its 240,000-square-foot office on 55th Street to 200,000 square feet in the MetLife building in New York. Like most firms, Paul Hastings downsized its footprint and fit roughly the same number of people into a smaller, more efficient space.

Every counsel and partner, including chairman Seth Zachary, has a 140-square-foot office. That's just a quarter of the size of Zachary's former office, the article says. Glass office walls let light into the building's interior. Some associates also sit in 140-square-foot spaces; others have 90-square-foot offices in the internal space once reserved for secretaries' desks. First- and second-year associates work in cubicles in bright rooms facing Manhattan's skyline.

Click here to read the full article on The American Lawyer and check back on GlobeSt.com in the next day or so to read more about “the modern law firm” about reducing budget with real estate and more.