|
news |
features |
students |
law firms |
practice areas |
expert witness |
events |
jobs |
subscribe |
RSS
|
|
An office away from the office
Holding Redlich
- Phone:
- +61 3 9321 9999
- Fax:
- +61 3 9321 9900
- Email:
- Contact this firm
- URL:
- http://www.holdingredlich.com.au
- Phone:
- +61 2 9373 3555
- Fax:
- +61 2 9373 3599
- Email:
- Contact this firm
- URL:
- http://www.sparke.com.au
Even the most dynamic and mobile teams need somewhere to setup shop, and serviced offices can provide small teams and larger companies alike with that kind of flexibility. Megan Mason writes
If there is one constant in the legal profession, it is that the work is rarely predictable. Working hours, staff numbers and workload can fluctuate rapidly, putting pressure not only on staff but also on the environment in which they work. What do you do, for example, when a project suddenly requires five extra bodies but your office is already more crowded than the 7.05am to Wynyard Station? Or a case requires a team to spend six weeks in Brisbane, where you don’t have any office space? Or you need to run a delicate meeting between multiple parties but your own conference rooms have hosted one too many farewell drinks to present the right image.
For many firms, the answer to all these questions is serviced office space, run by companies whose business is about finding space for other companies to do what they do. No longer are serviced offices reserved only for the start-ups and the sole traders. Long-established and larger firms are seeing the benefits of the one-stop shop at a time when property overheads are skyrocketing and the need for flexibility in the workplace is ever greater.
According to Ian Wheeler, general manager of Regus International, one of the country’s largest serviced space companies, firms of every size and specialisation use Regus space at one time or another.
“There’re two kinds of clients, mainly,” Wheeler says. “The smaller lawyers; we have a range using us, [with] solicitors and barristers in various locations. They tend to be specialists in human resources law, immigration law, business and consultancy. [One independent lawyer] moved in two weeks ago, and I was chatting to the guy at the office’s Melbourne Cup function and he said it’s just perfect to leave his case files, have a location which is outside of his home, to work on flexible terms, and to have secure premises in a prestigious location.”
At the other end of the spectrum, there are larger firms looking for extra space outside their own premises for one-off events. “We’ve had Holding Redlich [and] Sparke Helmore both involved with arbitrations here,” says Wheeler. “In some of these big cases, there are 10 or 11 lawyers involved and neutral territory is absolutely key, so that no one is seen to be kowtowing to one party by meeting at that party’s premises. That’s worked well – the cost is shared between parties, and then each party has their own room here as well.”
In other cases, entire chambers will set up a practise inside a serviced space. In Perth, Regus operates a floor of one of its buildings to the John Toohey Chambers. “We purchased that centre last year,” Wheeler says. “And we provide all the IT and telecom services so they don’t have to concern themselves with that. One floor in that building is actually dedicated to barristers, another to ordinary clients. There is minimal conflict of interest, but we can group together like-minded clients [if requested].”
Indeed for many smaller firms and sole practitioners, this grouping together is part of the attraction of serviced space, as well as the central location of many of the buildings. When Brisbane-based lawyer Doug Young left his partnership last year after 16 years at what was then Blake Dawson Waldron to start practising under his own name “I took a decision, not consciously at first, that I wasn’t prepared to go to space of lesser quality than I had when I was a partner at Blakes. I am a self-contained practitioner, and I can do what I do anywhere but … you just need to have a city presence,” Young says.
“There’s a sense of buzz in the city and you need to be able to meet people at short notice – and I didn’t want to be borrowing friends’ boardrooms. And you do need the demarcation between home and office, and that separate space where you don’t feel the need to go and clean the pool. You can’t really run something for big international clients from home.”
Young scoped out half-a-dozen different serviced office companies but chose Regus on the basis of price and location – the same spot in the Riverside Centre where he’d worked with Blakes. “I’d worked there for 16 years so I feel comfortable there. You’ve only got to be one block away from the action and you’re not there.”
The same is true for Jenni Mattila, head of Jenni Mattila & Co, one of the country’s foremost rural water practices. The firm’s areas of work – in national water security, water infrastructure and trading, irrigation and government water policy – take Mattila and her team all over Australia, but her base needed to be in Sydney’s Macquarie Street, where the government departments that she works so closely with are located.
“I did spend a lot of time comparing [various serviced office companies] but it was mainly about location,” says Mattila. Her work also takes her, at least two weeks a month, to client meetings in Perth, Hobart, Brisbane, Melbourne and Darwin. “You need to be able to walk into an office and start working straight away. We need meeting rooms where we can hold meetings with clients, or the government officials that we deal with.”
The cost of leasing a private office in each city makes no sense for a small firm but it isn’t just cost that deterred Mattila from approaching the company’s infrastructure needs that way. “I did cost it all out a couple of years ago but for us, it is more of a flexibility problem. We’re at the stage where our business is expanding and you can’t always get additional space immediately, or for just a few weeks. [Also] you’d actually have to get the office space, and do a fit-out and fit-outs aren’t cheap, and then you’d discover it wasn’t big enough anymore. Just in the last couple of months we’ve increased our workload and you need to be able to increase your workspace quite dramatically sometimes.”
Cost is always a factor for smaller firms and every serviced office company charges differently. Says Doug Young: “I looked at half-a-dozen [offices], and some, although cheaper [than Regus] on the up-front cost, you take a look at the agreement and they are charging you gouge rates for everything else. One place I looked at charged a secretarial hourly rate for a staff member to stop by the front desk to ask if you wanted to book a meeting. I pay a little bit more for Regus but I don’t pay for any of their phones or internet – I do that all myself through the mobile [phone].”
Regus’ Wheeler explains the company’s fee structure: “We try and keep [the cost] as transparent as possible. There are three elements. You pay for the space that you occupy, the phones that you use, and the internet connections you use. Then there’s a list of other services – couriers, for example – that you can access with our negotiated group rates. There is secretarial and admin support, if you want it. It’s clear from day one how much the bill is going to be at the end of the month.”
In terms of flexibility, contracts are signed but are negotiated individually, and can be renegotiated if the client’s needs change. “If you took a space for three people for six months, we’d expect to use that,” Wheeler says, “But if you say ‘I need to move to a six-person space’, we sign up a new six person contract and tear up the first agreement. But, yes, there is that flexibility to sign for just six months. It certainly works to everyone’s advantage. You don’t do a 10-year plan anymore. You’re lucky even to have a one-year plan.”
28-Nov-2007
Related Tags
Related News
Legal community welcomes lawyer president
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Americans voted for change and change is what the legal community is likely to get, writes Angela Priestley
Slow market keeps local lawyers at home
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Australian lawyers looking to expand their experience overseas are finding that opportunities in international legal markets are disappearing as the world economy slows, writes Angela Priestley
4+ Year Corporate/Commercial Associates – 3 Live positions – Varied, Blue Chip Work – Leading Offshore firm – Excellent Work/Life Balance – Fantastic ... [more]
