Clifford Chance is shifting all its mainstream London corporate team to the same floor of its Canary Wharf building to raise cash in a move that also sees the firm trial an open-plan setting.
The firm is carrying out a staggered transfer of the team from the 21st to the 22nd floor of its London offices, with the space that is currently occupied by the team being marketed to prospective tenants.
One estimate being floated puts the annual business rate savings at £1m, based on the benefit of squeezing staff onto the same level.
In the meantime, the firm is looking to attract a long-term, high-quality tenant and has cleared the space on floor 21 to use as a show room.
The move excludes the financial institutions, funds, TMT and competition teams, which will be housed separately on their own floor.
The corporate team, which the firm split into three last year (31 January 2011), is currently housed over floors 21 and 22, with two of the groups on one floor and one on another.
The process to move the whole team onto floor 22 is being staggered over the course of a lengthy period, with a group transferring earlier this month and another team moving floors last Friday (11 May). The remainder are expected to transfer in a few months’ time. Other practice groups are unaffected.
A partner commented: “It’s kind of [about] integrating people, but it’s so that we have a better chance of renting out the building for a bit of cash. We save a huge amount in business rates.”
Meanwhile, the firm is trialling open-plan offices for the corporate team in the new set-up, with between a quarter and a third of the team - some volunteers, some forced - participating in the project, expected to last at least six months.
The move is understood to be generating an element of antipathy among partners, with one partner commenting: “How loud people whinge depends on what day of the week it is.”
A Clifford Chance spokesperson said: “Yes, some lawyers are moving between floors. This is business as usual – as we continue to seek ways of occupying our space more efficiently for our people and for our clients.
“There may be some open-plan offices in the new lay-out. There are many instances of open-plan working already in the office and we’ll continue to use this style of working where appropriate.”
Clifford Chance’s plans come amid the imminent departure of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, a tenant, from the firm’s offices, while there is also speculation over whether FTSE Group will move out of its space in the building.
Readers' comments (28)
Anonymous | 14-May-2012 11:37 am
They trialled open plan working for lawyers within my firm - it literally lasted months before everyone complained so much about the noise that they moved everyone back to offices and shunted business services into the space instead.
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Anon | 14-May-2012 12:15 pm
Another nail in the coffin of the idea of corporate lawyers still being members of a profession rather than glorifed call centre workers
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Anonymous | 14-May-2012 1:04 pm
Hard luck guys.
From bitter personal experience, open plan is a complete disaster when it comes to productivity and quality of environment to work in....
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Battery hen | 14-May-2012 1:37 pm
Save £1m in business rates, but lose ten times that in productivity and quality of work. Initially clients will pay a little more as each piece of work takes longer to achieve and they get billed for the extra hours, then CC will suffer as clients realize the quality isn't there any more. A staggeringly short-sighted move.
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Tom Fletcher | 14-May-2012 1:42 pm
I love the comments that come from the legal profession when discussing open plan. With the right planning and building design to help support lawyers, it can and does work.
It's not the answer to everything. There are pros and cons to having an office or being open plan. Go with whatever works for the business.
But if people are going to snobbily equate losing an office to working in a call centre, then they need to grow up.
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Open Palm | 14-May-2012 2:02 pm
Open plan at a "city" law firm is currently making me consider leaving the profession. I'm in a "pod" of 6 people that is smaller than my old office for two, and Jeremy Bentham would be proud of the feeling you get.
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Anonymous | 14-May-2012 2:29 pm
What happens when you need to have information barriers in an auction? I doubt they will be able to satisfy with the SRA’s requirements with an open plan office.
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Dino Suares | 14-May-2012 2:29 pm
Codswallop to all four of you! My firm (City, 500+ lawyers but not as high-falutin as yours no doubt) has been totally open plan for the past three years - and guess what, the sky hasn't fallen in.
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Bill Drummond | 14-May-2012 2:50 pm
Ha ha ha! That'll last 5 weeks. One shouty partner on a day long conference call and they will all be back to separate offices. And who will ask the secretaries to keep quiet?
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Battery Hen | 14-May-2012 2:58 pm
Dino, I work in an open plan office too. It sucks.
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