The CEO doesn't have an office. Neither do any of the partners or lawyers at Corrs Chambers Westgarth in Sydney, Australia. In late 2013, the Australia-based independent law firm, moved into a new office and was the first law firm locally to ditch the traditional closed office workplace in favour of an open and flexible working model.
Located in a new building – 8 Chifley Square in the CBD – Corrs took up 8000 square meters across 10 floors as part of a 12-year lease. Corrs’ lawyers and partners have forgone their traditional offices and now share a variety of unique spaces for team-based and flexible work, and collaborative meeting spaces in addition to their own workstation in an open environment. Technology, of course, underpins this work style and was critical to the success of the project.
While most observers of flexible work styles - including activity based working - often suggest organisations with stringent client confidentiality needs (e.g. law firms, healthcare providers, etc) can't adopt these kinds of workplace strategies, the Corrs example proves it is possible.
Corrs' CIO and project leader recently joined TRA on stage at CeBIT in Sydney to talk about their experience, which we have now written into a case study. If you are part of an organistion with strict client confidentiality needs but are also interested in more flexible ways of working, then please take the time to read how the Corrs team approached this challenge and are now striving ahead with the same approach at three other offices around the country.
