A good article on the current trends in law firm design from Contract Magazine's website. Some highlights from the article:
- Law firms are dealing with the downturn like all industries, with more than 12,000 attorneys being laid off in 2009.
- Space is no longer being used to award successful career paths and advancements.
- The standard metric of "rentable square feet per attorney" has been reduced more in the past five year than in any other point in its history. The average has shrunk from from 750 to 800 sqft down to 630 to 700 sqft
- In a quest to further reduce the foot print, law firms are turning to alternative office design strategies more common to accounting and consulting firms.
- The driving requirement is to maintain maximum flexibility at minimum cost. This means more universal sized hard wall offices, and a larger use of open plan furniture solutions (workstations and furniture based area dividers) versus standard dry wall partitions. This reduces both the cost and disruption associated with reconfiguring shared areas.
