May 17, 2018

Designing Offices for The Legal Industry

The Philadelphia Chapter of the Association of Legal Administration (ALA) hosted the successful 2018 ALA Legal Expo event at The Franklin Institute on May 17th. It was an exciting and educational evening filled with opportunities to network. This year, ALA changed the event to a speed networking format to allow attendees to meet with more business partners. This format change was met with excitement. “I loved the ‘speed dating’ set up,” Liz Shaffer, Sales and Marketing Associate at Formcraft, said. “It had a good flow to it, and we talked to some people we might not normally get a chance to chat with.”

As a proud sponsor of the 2018 AlA Legal Expo, the Formcraft team gained valuable insights into the legal landscape in Philadelphia and what law firms are looking for in their office spaces. Here are four trends that had ALA members talking:

  • Glass Office Walls – More natural light, transparency, and opportunities for collaboration are just some of the reasons glass office walls are so popular.
  • Smaller Partner Offices – According to National Real Estate Investor, even mid-level employees and partners opt for smaller personal offices for the good of their firms. Less space doesn’t have to mean less productivity!
  • Hoteling – More firms are moving towards hoteling, a form of office management where workers purposefully schedule time in their workspaces, offices, or cubicles. For example, two firms might share the same office, but Firm A is only in the building Monday and Wednesday, and Firm B is in the building the other three days. This allows for employee flexibility plus cuts back on real estate costs.
  • Open Office Plan – Though it isn’t for everyone, some law firms showed interest in completely open office plans. Here’s some more information on how to get your employees on board if you’re thinking about opening up your office space, too!

The Formcraft team is happy they were able to sponsor such a fantastic event and hear so many different perspectives from ALA members.

“We’re always looking to learn as much as we can about the future of legal workspaces in Philadelphia and it was great to interact with the ALA members on this topic,” Philip Lock, Principal of Formcraft, said. “ALA is always a great place for us to further learn and the members are always willing to share their experiences and challenges. It was great to catch up with them.”

Formcraft is looking forward to more collaboration with ALA in the future!

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