Law Firms Can Save Tons Of Money By Continuing Virtual Work

It may be difficult to persuade some lawyers to adopt a new way of thinking about real estate.

As discussed on this website at length recently, the legal industry is starting to return to normal as COVID-19 cases drop across the country. Many law firms have indicated that they will expect employees to return to the office soon in some fashion, and firms have adopted different policies surrounding how frequently attorneys and staff will need to be in their offices. For a variety of reasons, law firms should use all of the lessons they learned during the COVID-19 pandemic to promote remote work, and this can ultimately have a positive impact on the bottom lines of many law firms.

Most law firm managers would probably say that real estate costs are the biggest millstone impeding the financial success of a shop. Real estate costs are typically a large portion of the budgets of many law firms, depending on the cities in which the firm operates and other factors. In addition, real estate is ordinarily an inflexible expense for firms because it is not uncommon for law firms to sign leases for a decade or longer in certain instances. It is extremely difficult for firms to lower their real estate footprint to match headcount or rightsize financially if circumstances change, and this can have a negative impact on law firms.

In my own career, I have seen law firm managers struggle to deal with real estate costs. For instance, I once worked at a law firm that leased two floors of prime real estate in an expensive city. The firm eventually experienced changes, and they were unable to even fill one half of one floor of the space they had leased. The firm tried subletting some of the space, but the shop bled money unnecessarily because they could not get out of a long-term lease for those two floors. In addition, that firm would routinely open offices to handle a portfolio of work, but when the work dried up, they would be stuck with the remaining years on their lease.

One solution to this inflexibility and expense is to keep real estate costs as low as possible by securing a minimal amount of space for a firm’s office. Of course, some attorneys and staff need physical offices to conduct work because of ethical walls and other issues, but most people do not need much workspace to be effective at their jobs. One of the ways that law firms can reduce their real estate footprint and costs is to promote work-from-home policies and encourage attorneys and staff to only come to the office a few days a week. Most people would gladly trade a smaller workspace for the flexibility afforded by work-from-home policies, and striking a middle balance ensures that firms reduce their overhead, maintain collaboration, and promote flexibility.

Nevertheless, some lawyers are unwilling to forgo traditional offices, either because they think clients want to be impressed by a physical space when they visit lawyers or because they think that in-person collaboration is best. In my experience, such lawyers tend to be more old-school attorneys who are used to a certain way of operating, and it may be difficult to persuade such lawyers to adopt a new way of thinking about real estate.

Before I started my own law firm (and years before the COVID-19 pandemic began) I worked at a shop that was spending a great deal of time and resources creating a new office space, what they called “the office of the future.” At the time, I told pretty much anyone who would listen that the “office of the future” was not to have an office, and that the firm would be better off reducing its real estate footprint and promoting remote work. Several years before the pandemic began, I based these opinions on the example of cheap communal workspaces that were blossoming in my area and policies of some employers that permitted employees to work from home a few days a week.

However, when I brought my opinions to the attention of a manager of that firm, my suggestions were summarily rejected, and I was told that virtual work kills collaboration. This administrator was not convinced by my assurances that attorneys these days collaborate by text, GChat, and other means and that there was little reason for everyone to see each other face-to-face every business day. This firm was one of the first shops to reopen last summer, possibly owing to the fact that the firm was paying for an expensive office. Of course, this shop created its new office space before the pandemic began and before administrators presumably learned insights about virtual work. However, if the firm promoted virtual work sooner, they could have been well-positioned for the transition to virtual work that has impacted the legal industry since the COVID-19 pandemic and the cost savings this can create.

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In any event, I can discuss all of the benefits of remote work and how it reduces commuting times, affords employees the ability to better take care of family responsibilities, and other advantages. However, we all know that law firms are businesses, and they are far more likely to make decisions based on their bottom lines than any other factor. As such, it is important to discuss how promoting remote work can help law firms save money and afford them better flexibility in their operations. As law firms contemplate reopening offices and their real estate decisions in the future, they should consider the financial benefits of continuing virtual work.


Jordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at jordan@rothmanlawyer.com.

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