City of London law firms are moving offices at an unprecedented rate as they battle to lure staff with places that teach yoga, nail bars and beehives.
Law firms are taking a record 1.5 million square feet in London by 2022, 95 percent of which are new or fully renovated, according to estate agency Knight Frank.
Reed Smith, Clifford Chance, Addleshaw Goddard and Squire Patton Boggs are among those renting new London offices with extensive facilities.
Many firms are reducing floor space following the shift to hybrid working but are also looking to use head offices to attract staff in an increasingly competitive recruitment market, and entice existing lawyers back into the office.
Research from estate agency Cushman & Wakefield shows that today’s staff care equally about where they work and where they get paid.
Rob Shooter, managing partner at law firm Fieldfisher, said: “We want to [to make offices] more amazing than working from home, and landlords have earned it.
He added: “We have been shown places by renting a Brompton for free [bicycles]yoga studio, and if I hear the words ‘Ottolenghi style brasserie’ again I can kill someone.
One property agent showed him an office with a worm composting system on the terrace, and some with beehives and nail bars.
Another law firm, Reed Smith, is moving from its City base atop Broadgate Tower to Blossom Yard & Studios, a renovated 1890s warehouse building in Spitalfields.
“The plan is more open, there is a collaboration space that includes a table with a lot of technology, a kitchen area that is a destination, with a sofa and a TV. We all gather there to watch the world cup. . . It brings people in,” said Tamara Box, managing partner of the company for Europe and the Middle East.
“We’ve had a lot of fun at the tower but the way we work has changed.”
Reed Smith said the new office could yield modest cost savings over the long term.
Nicola Gillen, of Cushman, said reducing emissions was also an important factor for companies looking for new premises. He said the law firm the agency works with has “pretty aggressive” emissions-cutting targets. “The office is a big part of it.”
He added: “I don’t think of worms and beehives [alone] want to cut with the younger generation. . . People come in to see other people, not in for donuts or beehives.
The shift to working from home during the pandemic has also reduced the space required by law firms. In its latest annual results, the DWF-listed law firm said up to a third of global office space was “potentially surplus to post-Covid requirements”.
The company says it could save £7 million a year as a result over the medium term.
Clifford Chance is to downsize as it moves from its Canary Wharf skyscraper to a smaller base in the City of London.
The company currently occupies around 440,000 sq ft of its spacious 700,000 sq ft office, with a swimming pool, dry cleaners and hairdressers on site. It will take up 321,100 sq ft when it moves to 2 Aldermanbury Square at the end of its lease in 2028.