Dan ArendsIf there’s one thing I know from working closely with clients in the legal industry, it’s that efficiency is
key for most lawyers. While lawyers are very deliberate about how they use their time in the office, I have noticed that many law firms are still looking for the right way to use their office space efficiently.
That’s what we found in a recent benchmarking study that examines the relative real estate efficiencies and costs for the largest 20 law firms in a selection of North American markets. My colleague Colin Scarlett and I discovered several insights from this information that law firms (and many other types of businesses) will find valuable.
The study suggests that despite the broader trend toward office space efficiency, many leading law firms still maintain large offices in the most expensive real estate markets. And rightly so. For many firms, a large headquarters office in a primary market is an essential part of their business, recruitment and retention strategy. But law firms may be overlooking an opportunity to create meaningful cost savings by thinking about their space needs differently.
Click through the slideshow below to learn how companies can address inefficiencies and drive cost savings by carefully examining which business functions are strategic and which are tactical—and making real estate decisions accordingly.
Start Here:
Strategic
- Face-to-face interaction is essential
- Planning, debate, collaboration
Integrate strategic functions into the fabric of key offices
Tactical
- Work that can be accomplished without face-to-face interaction
- Workflow, execution, implementation
Consider these 3 Strategies
Relocate tactical functions to lower, less expensive building floors
Shift tactical functions to more cost-efficient markets
Decrease real estate needs by outsourcing some tactical functions
Aaron Jodka
Amber Merrigan
Andrew Steele