Designing success: How your office's design affects BD

Law firms face a variety of challenges – organisational, aesthetic, and cultural – in ensuring their properties match both their business objectives and marketing needs. Yet, if those challenges are overcome, positive design can result ?in not just greater client engagement ?and business development, but also improved talent retention and increased industry recognition.

How should law firms approach the design elements of their offices? To leading interior designer Paulo Ribeiro ?of Bisset Adams, the simplest answer is also the most difficult: the purpose of design is to match the organisation’s identity with what it stands for.

This means taking account of the ?firm’s business objectives and those who work within it so that any office is, in effect, a set of tools that are suited to the style of work required and that enables individuals to work effectively. “A well thought-out workplace brings positive energy to both users and clients,” he says.

The client view

How clients view the end result is fundamental to the whole project. One European general counsel, speaking anonymously, says that law firms do not pay enough attention to office design ?“by a long stretch”.

The challenge for firms, he says, is ?that the use of good design involves emotional intelligence, which is not something that lawyers are always intrinsically blessed with.

Good design is essential. That design, however, must reflect what the client seeks from that firm’s brand, in sometimes contradictory ways, as “law firms need to convey security, surety, creativity and novel solutions, which are hard to combine”.

The European GC notes that, while it is easy for a law firm to convey a message that it is strong and competent, it is ?rather less so to convey that the firm is more than that; that it can actually think outside the box.

The innovative is important, he says, because ultimately the law is just a means to an end, but lawyers tend to forget that; “their design approach often reflects how they express how they feel about which is the more important: the law or the purpose it is supposed to serve”.

A common view among general counsel is that doing the simple things ?well – providing free WiFi access, for example – is essential.

In addition, one UK healthcare GC stresses she prefers a design that is “neither too shabby nor too ostentatious”.

Spending too much also matters because, as another UK-based commentator notes, “if a practice spends too much, it can have a negative impact. The client will feel that their fee is needlessly being spent on lavish offices. Almost always, the client would rather ?have a more basic environment and a ?more competitive fee”.

The healthcare GC adds: “I am very comfortable with offices in remote locations (such as the increasing use of business parks), which I think shows that the firm is keen to be close to clients and is keeping an eye on costs”.

She gives an example of simple and effective design, saying “firms that want to build a good in-house network [should] leave enough space that is equipped for seminars and networking events”.

Clients stress that their areas should really reflect the firm’s culture “rather than being just another client area that could, frankly, be anybody’s, so that their culture shines through everything they do,” as one GC notes.

“Looking good need not cost the ?earth, but the basics are to keep a clean, modern and comfortable environment,” ?he concludes.

Achieving great design

A well-designed office, of course, requires planning for it from the outset to enable people to work in a clean, modern and professional environment.

To achieve that, “one need is to find out the firm’s explicit objectives right from the beginning, so as to avoid expensive mistakes later down the line,” says Ribeiro.

He stresses the design process is always a process of adaptation, incorporating feedback from workers as to how to make these spaces work harder and smarter. “People will feel empowered if you include their needs in the design process,” says Ribeiro. “It’s not just about what the MP wants: everyone matters.”

This seems to reflect the inclusive style that CEO Mark Dembovsky has modelled in Howard Kennedy’s recent complete re-design of its client area.

Dembovsky had received lawyer feedback which suggested that the firm’s meeting rooms no longer reflected well on the firm. He became interested in not just changing the look of the office but also in how it works to engender a cultural and a performance change.

Because of the firm’s focus on high-net worth individuals, owner-managed businesses, entrepreneurs and their funders, Dembovsky says he sought design concepts “aimed at creating a space that reflected the essence of [our] entrepreneurial nature”.

He says he tried to create a balance between “creating a space that was functional, comfortable, [and] contemporary but, given the current economic climate, not opulent for fear of sending the wrong message”.

He also had to be sensitive to the age and character of the building, based in historic Cavendish Square, a location highly valued by clients and staff alike.

He notes that the refurbishment, completed in January, has been overwhelmingly positively received, although the actual working environment itself can be challenging, given the building’s age.

With over three years left to run on the lease, Dembovsky is also undertaking a premises strategy review, while trying to “make the most of what we have”.

Changing rooms and attitudes

With firms such as Howard Kennedy fixed firmly on growth, there are good reasons to evolve design alongside other parts of the marketing mix. There’s a school of thought which suggests that, every five years, firms should rethink their brand identity and office design to reflect their change ?in direction.

“Brands change much quicker than buildings – if you’re planning to go for growth in ten years’ time, you need to be designing your office now with that in mind,” says Riberio.

A cultural change is one of the key triggers to finding new design solutions within an organisation, and vice versa, as “a full refurbishment can often be an excuse to make a cultural change,” he says. A fresh design can be used, for example, to create an environment that is more conducive towards business development and talent retention.

TLT might well argue that its move to new City offices in May 2010 helped it to achieve many of those same objectives, as well as to save money in rationalising its previous property arrangements.

The firm’s BD director, Leigh Lyons, says the move enabled the firm to “cost-effectively design the space, replicating the design, fittings, furniture, facilities and open-plan layout of the premises in Bristol”.

This, she says, gives clients a more consistent experience, but also helps to recruit new staff, particularly at a senior level and in niche practice areas that the firm wants to develop. It has also, says Lyons, helped to both improve retention rates and increase employee motivation, satisfaction and performance.

TLT decided to reflect its open working culture in its physical working environment. Its completely open plan office space – including for managing and senior partners – was designed to engender a more interactive business, encouraging the sharing of knowledge, information and ideas, to benefit clients and drive innovation.

Whatever structure is adopted, Ribeiro stresses that it should always reflect the three Cs: communication, concentration and collaboration. In an open-plan environment, for example, firms should set aside areas suitable for different levels of communication and concentration.

An open-plan office may be most suitable for those who have few problems with concentration. Cubicles should also be allocated for those who need medium levels of concentration and interaction, ?and for those who also need to be ?slightly separate.

Complementing such spaces, says Riberio, should be breakout areas for quiet work and touchdown areas: open workspaces for one person, with relatively little social interaction, where the user can concentrate on his work. More social or team gatherings should then be structured alongside meeting points, where people can gather in the morning, stand around a table and interact.

It is clearly important to have an office design that creates an underlying reflection of the firm’s brand, values and culture. “Branding is about creating a particular image, a reflection of what you do. And that can include a physical manifestation through the environment – it can convey a particular approach, image and feel to the business that works on many levels, not just intellectually,” notes Ribeiro.

 

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Getting the design parameters right

• Set explicit objectives right from the beginning.

• Empower all staff by including their needs in the design process.

• Manage expectations, including those that fall outside of the budget.

• Ensure personnel understand the bigger picture as well as their own needs.

• Communicate how all of the design changes fit together.

• Don’t make assumptions about what different levels of staff may want.

• Remember that, just as the brand changes, so too should the design elements.

• Think of design as ongoing and as an organic process of evolution.

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Local vs uniform

A firm’s culture is increasingly a polyglot thing; the extent to which offices reflect regional interests is also an issue.

The sheer level of interest in Asian expansion amongst international law firms of late has resulted in a greater focus on the design elements of new offices. However, each has walked the tightrope of balancing uniform branding with local cultural designs.

The approach at Hogan Lovells has been to adopt a uniformity of style across all of its international offices. David Craigen, head of BD for Asia-Pacific, ?notes that uniformity doesn’t mean each office is absolutely identical, however, ?and that “some offices will reflect a ?certain jurisdictional theme in terms ?of artwork displayed in client areas, ?for instance”. Generally, however, the design principles followed by the firm ?in London apply internationally.

The buildings in which law firm offices are located are increasingly unique, particularly in rapid-growth markets. ?Given the increasing demand for office space in Asian markets – and in Hong Kong and Singapore in particular – that energy and growth has been positively reflected in the architecture and designs ?of many new buildings.

“In many respects, Asia is at the forefront of contemporary design and arguably now influences international design sensibilities”, says Craigen, citing the firm’s new Singapore office at the OUE Bayfront in Marina Bay as being reflective of this.

Poh Lee Tan, managing partner of Baker & McKenzie’s Hong Kong, China and Vietnam offices, takes a slightly different approach. From the outset, she says “we wanted to create an office environment that reflects our Asian roots,” while reflecting the “prestige and sophistication” that she says flows from Baker’s global brand.

The firm’s Hong Kong office recently won the five-stars award at the Asia Pacific Property Awards for the quality of its design. “One of the more prominent features of our Hong Kong office is the ‘dancing dragon’ – it takes the form of a free-standing ‘fin’ in both offices, acting as shelving as well as a space divider and is a distinct sculptural element in the main reception area,” notes Tan.

She cleaves to the same consistent branding message that both Craigen and Lyons advocate, as her firm’s Hong Kong offices are distributed across two separate buildings in the city’s central business district. To unify the two locations, Tan says, “we adopted common design standards, as well as a coordinated matter and colour palette to accentuate the same look and feel”.

Tackling client needs was also paramount in creating a variety of ?spaces that accommodate anything ?from small private meetings to ?large-scale conferences. The need ?for communication is also tackled with enhanced connectivity. The Hong Kong office uses integrated state-of-the-art communication technology, internet kiosks and wireless access for visitors, including videoconferencing facilities.

Tan talks with enthusiasm about using the firm’s refit to refocus on client needs in tougher times, stressing improved efficiency and productivity. The investment in space and infrastructure, she says, “makes it easy for people to hold impromptu meetings, to work wirelessly, to recharge and reenergise after long stints in the office, and to help improve communication flows across the firm.”

Clients, she says, appreciate the firm’s unique and tasteful interior design, as well as the efficiencies that the design generates. While not open-plan, the use of glass partitions in offices also encourages an open-door policy, while balancing privacy with accessibility and encouraging cross-firm collaboration.

Good design – Western or Asian – clearly counts.

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