Redesigning the Legal Workplace: Our Top 5 Takeaways from the Birmingham Managing Partners Forum

Last month, we co hosted the Managing Partners Forum at the iconic St Philips Chambers in Birmingham with MillerKnoll. The event brought together leaders from the legal profession to explore how workplace design can help attract top talent, build culture, and support net zero goals.After listening to the speakers at the event, we captured the top five takeaways that were shared by the leading voices in the Birmingham legal profession. As the war for talent intensifies and expectations evolve, legal firms are waking up to a truth other industries have already embraced: your workplace is no longer just where people work. Here are the key highlights from the talk and why they’re important to the future of legal office design.

1. Talent Attraction and Retention

The legal industry has long been defined by tradition but the young legal professionals entering the workplace today are driven by more than salaries and titles. They’re looking for flexibility, a sense of purpose, holistic wellbeing, and leadership that inspires.

But the legal sector has still got a professional image to maintain so this shift to talent attraction isn’t about beanbags and breakout rooms. It’s about workplaces that reflect values, enable deep work, and foster career progression. When designed well, offices can act as cultural amplifiers to help reinforce identity and nurture an impactful business culture.

2. Sustainability is a Strategic Priority

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) isn’t a tickbox exercise anymore. It’s the main event and legal firms are increasingly expected to take sustainability seriously. Clients and employees are now expecting to see offices in the legal profession to reflect the commitments being made by business leaders. Workplace design plays a pivotal role in net-zero journeys from low-carbon material choices and energy-efficient layouts to adaptable, long-life environments that reduce churn and waste.

What’s important to remember is that there is more beyond just capturing and measuring these sustainability metrics. A greener workplace boosts employee pride, fosters reputational trust, and signals that a firm is building for the future, not just the present.

3. Workplace Strategy is linked to Business Strategy

The role of the office in the legal sector has seemingly become less about prestigious real estate and more about aligning with brand, client and talent strategies. From the discussion we saw, the most progressive firms are weaving workplace decisions into the heart of their leadership agenda.

This is largely because office design has ‘earned a seat at the table’ and it has been proven to offer an advantage when hiring talent as well as driving innovation and cultural cohesion.This is how workplace strategy and business strategy have become more linked than ever in the sector and the leaders who see office design as a strategic investment, are finding themselves ahead of the curve.

4. Design for Impact

Rather than just adapting, firms have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to redefine their workplaces to better support human needs. The concept of retrofitting or refurbishing a space is never going to go away but the way the workplace is seen today, office design must be about impact and creating spaces that are ready for the future.

This is likely to mean resets and overhauls rather than simply making a few changes here and there. These changes are likely to be focused on designing environments that support human needs. Where this is different to what has come before is that these new spaces will be designed to flex as the firm evolves rather than be restrictive.

When you get this right, workplace transformation becomes a cultural driver and delivers impact. It enables people to do their best work and thrive.

5. Attracting People into the Office

The big question is all about whether the modern office is delivering on its full potential. The challenge with this, is how do we ever know the full potential of our working environments?

One place to start is understanding the value that the office has within people’s lives. The way we look at the office now is more about how the office fits into our lives, rather than how our lives fit around the office. Some of the discussion points raised some interesting ideas around why some spaces energise us and what makes a workplace feel motivating?

When we talk about designing offices, we aim to design spaces that people want to be in, not have to be in. Understanding the people that use these offices and translating their needs into the design of the space through lighting, layout, acoustics and collaboration can be influential in attracting people back to the office.

Cohosting this event with MillerKnoll was a fantastic way to connect with C-Suite leaders from the legal profession and get an even greater understanding of the challenges facing the sector. The final takeaway that really stood out for us was that law offices have evolved beyond their static, traditional environments and are now looking to embrace forward-thinking, people focused office design.