Canadian Lawyer

30 J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 8 w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m trades can be hired at far more reasonable rates, the whole thing cost $300,000. The Ross Firm is not a full open-con- cept build: The northern two-thirds of the office, which once served as a store, have been transformed into a single modern, sunlight-drenched space. But the southern portion, carved out of former residential units with lower ceilings, is a traditionally segmented office space for the firm's law- yers — including Ross' son Quinn, and her husband Paul, the firm's founder. When you climb the stairs to The Ross Firm, the very first thing you see is a large plate-glass window that looks directly on to the courthouse in the middle of The Square and the businesses that ring it. As an architectural signifier, it serves to emphasize the firm's connection to God- erich, the town's civic life and its legal community. On the other side of the reception desk is a large glass-walled conference room, which shares the same view. "If we had done a traditional law firm layout, that's where the partners' offices would be," Ross tells me. But she made the intentional choice to keep the choicest office real estate within the firm's shared sphere. "I grew up with a mother who created in me a sense of social justice and egali- tarianism," she says. "And in the course of practising law and being a [law society] bencher, I have had a chance to meet lots of lawyers on the golden mile [large Bay Street law firms]. On one occasion, I had a chance to use one of those firms as a client. The experience felt cold. I had a chance to place myself in some very expensive chairs and some very expensive boardrooms. But it was intimidating. So, when I had my own law firm space, I knew I wanted the clients who honour us with their business to have a very different experience from that. Their first view when they come up those stairs — of the court and the whole town — they catch their first glimpse of that, and I can see them just visibly relax." When I made my own living as a lawyer in the 1990s, each of the three firms where I worked presented clients with the same architectural experience that Ross described with distaste: They would step off an elevator to arrive at an austere reception area, then, once admit- ted, proceed past the assistants, then the associates, then finally on to the offices of the partners, which had the largest foot- print and the grandest views — enclosed behind wood and drywall. The opaque- ness of it all was intentional: Visitors felt like they were progressing into the inner chambers of a temple. Most lawyers don't wear robes or wigs these days. But some still use architecture to achieve that same status-signalling effect. This model has gradually been changing over the last few decades. Opaque walls turned translucent, then transparent. Designers started looking more closely at air quality and lighting, and they stopped treating assistants and clerks as office-plan afterthoughts. Offices shrank and became more uniform. When Osler Hoskin & Har- court LLP in Toronto recently renovated its offices at First Canadian Place, for instance, it instructed lawyers to get rid of all their personal furniture and replaced it with generic Osler chairs and desks. There sim- ply wasn't room for all the old overstuffed chairs and couches, Osler COO Ruth Woods says. And the new policy means offices can be moved in a matter of hours, since it is only contents, not furnishings, that now require relocation. The idea of an office as a sprawling expression of one's personality and profes- sional style — crammed with mementoes from old closings, signed photos, kids' art- work and expensive sports memorabilia — is fading away. More and more, it is just another flat surface where you stick your laptop and access the internet. To the extent that it has any useful moral signalling effect, that effect is more and more being created for the sake of clients, not lawyers. And why not? That's the way things work in every other industry. If the old architectural model drew inspiration from a temple, the new model more closely resembles a café or white-col- lar workshop, welcoming clients and recruits into a culture of common pur- pose, instead of awing them with guild atmospherics. Open concept isn't just an architectural fad: It's an expression of the profession's changing identity. "THEIR FIRST VIEW WHEN THEY COME UP THOSE STAIRS — OF THE COURT AND THE WHOLE TOWN — THEY CATCH THEIR FIRST GLIMPSE OF THAT, AND I CAN SEE THEM JUST VISIBLY RELAX." HEATHER JOY ROSS, THE ROSS FIRM 2018 CANADIAN LAWYER LEGAL FEES SURVEY Survey closes January 25 Complete the survey at canadianlawyermag.com/surveys for a chance to win a $200 Amazon gift card. Check out the results in the April issue to see how your fees compare Untitled-3 1 2017-12-08 11:08 AM

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