Typically, when a law firm in Philadelphia moves into a new office building, the rest of us barely look up from our BlackBerries. But when Duane Morris moved from One Liberty Place to United Plaza in Center City last year, it created a splash.
In August 2005, the firm completed a makeover of our new home by converting the space's interior into a state-of-the-art facility, adding bold signage to the outside of the building, designing a cafe and restaurant on the first floor, and installing Roy Lichtenstein's colorful pop art sculpture, Brushstroke Group 1996, in front of the building. The addition of Philadelphia's first outdoor Lichtenstein sculpture has revitalized the area for the firm's attorneys and staff in Philadelphia, as well as for the surrounding community.
Of course, moving a large law firm from one space to another is more than cosmetic. If done well, a move can be both financially beneficial and rewarding to the life of the firm. However, it takes a tremendous amount of planning and hard work to navigate what may often seem like a logistical nightmare. The stakes are high for all involved -- from firm leadership to lawyers to staff to clients.
For Duane Morris, it was worth the risk. After gathering information, planning and designing the new facilities, the firm built, furnished, equipped and moved into a new space that is flexible, efficient, functional, technologically enabled and aesthetically pleasing. The facility will serve as a model for the firm's future office spaces in other cities.
Efficient Space Saves Money
United Plaza accommodates the needs of the firm's Philadelphia attorneys, paralegals, and legal assistants in 616 square feet per attorney, compared to more than 800 square feet per attorney in One Liberty Place. This efficient use of space was accomplished through the implementation of new technology; good file management practices, reductions in the physical library collection, improvements in the attorney-to-legal assistant ratios, use of high-density file systems, ergonomic furniture, good space planning and a common goal of controlling expenses. These changes, coupled with the lower rental rates at United Plaza, will result in a $60 million savings over the 15-year term of the firm's lease.
The firm's real estate and facilities group surveyed a large cross-section of attorneys and staff across the country and worked with Duane Morris practice group leaders and administrative directors in order to understand their needs. It learned that the firm's people wanted as much desktop and file space as possible, state-of-the-art technology at their fingertips, ergonomic seating, and common areas for team projects and increased interaction. Then the group worked with architects to design space that would meet the needs of its users.
It was important to clean house. The firm wanted to ensure that it only moved required material to United Plaza. The firm reviewed more than 20,000 linear feet of files housed in the case/work rooms and common file areas to allot space according to practice group needs and to properly map the move of this material to multiple locations within United Plaza. The cleanup of the records center included bar-coding all active files shelved there and indexing and shipping closed and inactive files to the firm's off-site storage vendor. The firm effectively reduced the volume of material by more than 35 percent.
The entire library collection was reviewed. Unnecessary subscriptions were cancelled, and seldom-used books and materials were discarded. In the process, more than 6,000 volumes were donated to Drexel University's new law school, which is slated to open this fall. The Duane Morris library in Philadelphia is now more relevant to its practices.
While the new space meets the firm's needs today, it is also flexible to adapt to its future needs. The layout and construction of the office enables the firm to reconfigure major portions of space to align with changing needs with minimal cost and disruption. For instance, the firm allocated 130 square feet to each associate, paralegal and legal assistant. With minor construction work and swapping furniture, the firm can convert easily from one to another as personnel needs dictate.
Special Features
To obtain Brushstroke Group, Duane Morris worked with the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Fairmount Park Association and the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation. Bringing a major cultural icon to the city required both delicate diplomacy and hands-on, roll-up-the sleeves work. To begin with, the firm had to create a template of the base of the sculpture, because the individual pieces of large painted aluminum shapes had never been assembled as a completed sculpture. The broad expanse of concrete and greenery in front of United Plaza needed to be redesigned and renovated to accommodate and protect the art.
The firm and the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation collaborated on fitting the sculpture to United Plaza, both artistically and logistically. Working with architects Bower Lewis Thrower and the United Plaza management team, the plaza was redesigned, construction drawings were prepared and city approval to install the piece was received.
The sculpture can be enjoyed from Duane Morris' own cafe and restaurant on the first floor of United Plaza. Morris' and Upstairs at Morris' provide both casual and private dining opportunities for the firm's lawyers and staff, as well as for the other tenants in the building. The firm obtained a variance from the city of Philadelphia to allow it to use the space for this purpose. Not only does this provide a great amenity for all the building's tenants, but it also enables the firm to control the ground-floor retail space, which, depending on occupancy, could have detracted from the appeal of the entrance to the building. Morris' features a commercial kitchen with many of the same capabilities as high-end restaurants. The two-story dining area has built-in technology that allows the firm to host a wide variety of functions within the facilities.
Visitors to Duane Morris are greeted at the firm's reception area on the 12th floor, which includes a conference center, cyber cafe, 14 conference rooms of varying sizes, caucus rooms, visiting attorney offices and a divisible multipurpose room with furniture that can be arranged to meet a variety of needs. The conference center provides an array of technology, including wired and wireless networks and guest Internet access along with audio and visual conferencing capabilities. Personal computers and laser printers for local and network access are on-hand in the conference rooms throughout the office. A wide variety of support services are also available to the users of the conference center through the firm's business center and catering service.
Finishing touches made United Plaza a real "home' to Duane Morris. The firm negotiated the ability to install prominent signage on the front of the building, in the building lobby and elevators, as well as on the monument signage on both 17th and 18th streets. The firm also installed some of its extensive artwork in the lobby of the building. Finally, the elevator cabs were updated using the firm's finishes.
Technology Improvements
The firm designed and constructed a state-of-the-art "lights out" data center, a tightly restricted, extremely secure area for the firm's infrastructure and data that services the entire enterprise. As part of the firm's overall disaster recovery planning, as much environmental redundancy as practical was built in: power transformers, a large-scale uninterruptible power supply, a 40-hour diesel generator, air handlers and fire suppression. We installed a Network Operations Center (NOC) in the heart of our information services department to manage the data center remotely. The NOC provides visuals and audio alerts through numerous network management programs and is ideal for collaborative troubleshooting.
The Right Move
Moving has its risks, costs and frustrations. But when carefully planned and executed, it can increase efficiency, save money in the long run and improve the working environment for lawyers and staff. Members of every administrative department at Duane Morris worked tirelessly to plan and coordinate this complicated, multi-phased relocation. The result was a well-choreographed move that did not cause a sacrifice of billable hours or disruption of the ability to serve the needs of firm clients.
Frederick J. Strittmatter is Director of Real Estate and Facilities for Duane Morris LLP.
Reprinted with permission from The Legal Intelligencer, © ALM Media Properties LLC. All rights reserved.