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 | 15-May-2012 3:11 pm
So, people, having spent all this time navel-gazing have we discovered anything other than some superfluous belly-button fluff?
Thought not.
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Anonymous | 15-May-2012 5:01 pm
I think complex drafting requires silence, or something close enough. I know senior associates who struggle to draft even when their doors are closed because the secretaries outside are loud. Comparisons to other professions is unfair. Work in investment banking is far more collaborative than law, which is often quite solitary. I accept this will vary to some extent from department to department.
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Anonymous | 16-May-2012 1:22 pm
Since when was investment banking a profession?
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Recent legal sector entrant | 18-May-2012 12:36 pm
Open plan working is prevalent across many professional services firms. For every egotistical antagonist to vetoes OP working, I can show you a moduso operandi of the benefits and efficiencies gained to workflow. RE sector, Accountancy, strategy houses and funds clients are all engaged in OP working. Noise get used to it, its a way of working and remember OP + efficiency = increased PPP
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Anonymous | 18-May-2012 12:38 pm
No longer are law firms hugely profitable, cash-rich organisations. Of course open plan does have a cost-saving element to it, but one born of necessity for the growing majority of firms these days. Better to be open plan than to have your own corner office and no cash to pay drawings. Law firms are just businesses and are (finally) having to operate with the same level of economic discipline as every other business sector on the planet as competition increases, clients get more sophisticated and cash availability is reducing. So long as open space is properly planned and done to the right quality, it isn't anything like a call centre - it's just more flexible space with more income generated per square foot. Nothing to worry about - it's just sensible business management.
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Anonymous | 18-May-2012 2:48 pm
Unbelievable comments on thread - what makes lawyer's work as so special that they are unable to work in an OP space?!
I have worked open plan for sometime at a large city firm, I actually prefer it, encourages people to be tidier. There are quiet rooms if you need it or headphones for those who need to drown out noise. Yes some people moan but in my experience many people moan about any change.
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Frank Maher | 21-May-2012 3:05 pm
I moved a team doing professional indemnity litigation, some of it substantial and document heavy, to open plan. Some of it was very intensive, document heavy work. I expected a backlash, but having looked at the office to which we were moving I considered that traditional rabbit hutches would be a disaster. I took the flak but after people had moved in, the only complaint I received was that it was too quiet! The whispering was distracting. So I made a point of not whispering. However, it does not save a lot of space. I think it is a better way to work, particularly for supervision, but it does not mean you can double thee number of people in a given space.
So far as the comment about information barriers is concerned, if you are too close in open plan, you are probably too close anyway. It may work for client-imposed barriers but would not satisfy Chapter 4 of the Code.
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Anonymous | 23-May-2012 12:41 pm
"Hello
We're experiencing a high volume of contested bids right now. You call is important to us. Please leave a number and a membewr of our highly trained, uniformed, staff will call you back within 48 hours."
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