Hunton Andrews' New Miami Office Maximizes on the Edgiest of Law Firm Space Designs
Partners and associates will have same-sized offices as law firms increasingly are opting out of larger offices denoting seniority.
Hunton Andrews Kurth is the latest to abandon tradition and no longer designate attorney seniority with a bigger office as its new Miami space has same-sized offices for partners and associates.
Hunton Andrews already moved into its 24th-floor office at Wells Fargo Center in downtown Miami, although attorneys work there on a rotational basis to abide by social distancing requirements inn light of the coronavirus pandemic.
The firm’s previous home of over 20 years was at the Sabadell Financial Center in the Brickell Financial District just south of downtown Miami.
Relocation plans started pre-pandemic and the move was completed Nov. 21, but only announced Friday.
“We are looking forward to our downtown location,” managing partner Juan Enjamio said in prepared remarks. “We had already been planning to relocate before the pandemic, but once the office switched to remote working the move required additional levels of coordination.”
When Hunton Andrews’ Sabadell lease was reaching expiration, the firm wanted to look for a raw space that would allow it to design its office look and feel from scratch and with a personal touch, said Katherine Rosa, office administrator.
“We wanted the space to be more of a collaborative space so attorneys would be able to work in a more casual setting. Also, we do host a lot of events and it was more of an open-floor concept,” Rosa said. “The design is extremely modern. A lot of light comes in and we have a lot of marble.”
This is in contrast with the former office where dark hues were predominant.
The space not only has a “modern” look but also a “modern” feel as it embraced one of the biggest trends in law firm office design, or equal-sized offices for all attorneys. Partners and associates alike have a roughly 260-square-foot office.
Hunton Andrews eventually plans to have same-sized attorney offices across all its locations, implementing the practice as leases expire, Rosa said.
Several South Florida firms have taken up this approach, which Akerman office managing partner Neisen Kasdin in Miami has called “egalitarian.” The firm likely was the first in town to have equal-sized offices when it moved to Three Brickell City Centre in 2016. Its Fort Lauderdale office followed suit when it moved to The Main Las Olas.
Others to follow suit were Carlton Fields, which moved to 2 MiamiCentral atop downtown’s passenger train station last November; Kelley Kronenberg, which moved its headquarters to 10360 W. State Road 84 in Davie in September 2019; and Duane Morris, which moved its Miami office to Citigroup Center in September 2018.
Hunton Andrews’ new office employs another design trend, more common areas for collaboration, meetings, conferences and events.
There are six large conference rooms, one of them with a removable wall that opens up to a reception and events space to be utilized once the pandemic is over. The same conference room also can be configured for different types of meetings. There are removable desks that can make it more of a classroom setting for training, or they can be stored away and replaced with a large conference table.
There also are five Zoom meeting rooms and collaborative spaces equipped with a video screen and computer.
“Attorneys can go in there and do Zoom meetings,” Rosa said. “It’s actually very, very cool.”
All 23 attorneys and 42 support staff members relocated to the Wells Fargo Center at 333 SE Second Ave.
This is a 15-year lease but the firm didn’t release the value.
Hunton Andrews’ previous Sabadell tower home was at 1111 Brickell Ave.
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