New York associates say goodbye to the dream of the office and swivel chair
A new office space that Paul Hastings is moving into next spring in New York will separate new lawyers into pods, or cubicles, according to the Wall Street Journal.
First and second year lawyers will be separated in pods of 12 on the ends of floors, in spaces to be known as “end zones.” Whether management knows it or not, “pods” are also a term used in American jails where inmates are held in circular glass units. And “End Zone” might not be the most positive metaphor. Or maybe they are NFL football fans.
But the move is not unheard of and is common in Europe despite recent studies that show open space is not always ideal in offices. Still, it is likely a blow to new law school grads that just spent $300,000 in student loans imagining an office and not a cubicle.
The Paul Hastings plan is to have cubicle dividers put along table space to mark out the area that each lawyer can use.
Barry Brooks, chair of the Paul Hastings New York office told the Wall Street Journal: ‘I really do believe first- and second-years will benefit from true collaboration — they feed off each other. I don’t feel bad about it. “
The new pods will be part of Paul Hastings new digs in midtown Manhattan and it will be interesting to see the feedback. I suspect there won’t be a lot of public or twitter screaming given that in the last five years top law school grads have been struggling to find anything at all in big law and corporate clients don’t feel like paying for first years in big offices.
According to David Lat at Above the Law: “It has been a depressing summer for New York Biglaw associates.
Lat writes that one partner (not based in New York) wrote to Above the Law. “First, Wachtell Lipton implements the Big Brother monitoring system, and now Paul Hastings replaces offices with cubicles. The trappings of success just ain’t what they used to be.”
But as Lat points out, and I agree, if it can work at Google it can work in law.
Law school, however, can also be a three-year depressing grind and when a recent grad is sitting in that cubicle that person might be dreaming of working at Google. At least Google allows for naps and ping pong.
