What does your office say about you?
Law firms’ office environment not only has a bearing on how their people perform, but also on how clients perceive them, says Rhicha Kapila, partner and chief operating officer at Bolt Burdon Kemp.
Environmental psychology recognises the importance of the relationship between a person and their external world and over the years, this study has been applied more closely to how workplaces are designed. For example, it’s been recognised that an overwhelming environment – one that feels too small, too noisy or over-crowded can increase feelings of stress. This is where big windows, high ceilings, square rooms (rather than rectangles), and partitions to break up very large spaces can be employed with great success in office spaces.
And it’s not just about reducing feelings of stress and physical discomfort, but also recognising that a physical space impacts how an individual works and thinks. Colour, lighting, temperature and furniture can all have an effect. An element of the natural world and greenery can also really help reduce stress and some research even shows that design that incorporates more curved lines is also beneficial. A survey from Capital One found that 82% of office workers believe companies need an innovative office space to encourage creativity and innovation. We’ve certainly seen the look and feel of a law firm office evolve over time, but is enough being done to consider how these interior design choices impact not just lawyers’ psychology, but also that of their clients?
Post pandemic, law firms are having to reconsider more than ever what their offices look like. The vast majority of firms are switching to a hybrid working model, with some lawyers based for a proportion of their week at home. So, what does this mean for the office and its function? Writing in the Harvard Business Review, academics Anne-Laure Fayard, John Weeks, and Mahwesh Khan believe that in the new normal, the office “will become primarily a culture space, providing workers with a social anchor, facilitating connections, enabling learning, and fostering unscripted, innovative collaboration.”
We’re certainly seeing this and there’s no doubt that the role of the office in an organisation has shifted. My firm has recently relocated and when we were designing our new office space, we made sure to think carefully about creating a space that encourages collaboration and innovation and instils a sense of calm and, when needed, fun. Although lawyers still value working from home, we wanted to create a space that welcomes lawyers back and gives many a break from their home offices or kitchen tables and a chance enjoy in-person collaboration with colleagues again.
The pandemic drove people to adapt how they work after such a long period of enforced working from gome and office spaces need to reflect this shift too – adapting to the things that people enjoyed about working from home and maximising the elements that are unavailable to home workers. For example, we thought about what people enjoyed about working from home – such as more soft furnishings and a greater variety of places to work – and have looked to introduce some of those home comforts to the office. Working from a static desk day-in and day-out is unlikely to inspire much creativity. Instead we have created a number of different areas where lawyers can work, either alone or with a team, based in the office or remotely.
But what about clients? While an office’s primary function is to create an environment where workers can fulfil their roles, for law firms, offices serve as an important place to meet and counsel clients. We practice complex injury, so for us, our client’s perception and experience of the new office is of upmost importance. In my opinion, too many law firms still hide behind grand, overwhelming reception spaces and an inherently corporate environment, full of sharp angles and utilitarian furnishing.
For a client who is already going through a stressful experience and is feeling vulnerable and worried, a trip to see their lawyer shouldn’t feel like an ordeal. As an example of how to overcome this issue, we radically overhauled how clients experience our building in our recent redesign. Now we have a welcoming lounge area in the reception, which benefits from large windows that look directly out onto the street. At the heart of many law firms is transparency, accessibility and a desire to be seen as human and empathetic. There’s no reason this shouldn’t extend to how they look, and since the pandemic, there’s more impetus than ever to take another look at how an office space looks and functions for lawyers and clients alike.
