Ed Wesemann, author and law firm consultant with the Edge Group.
Ed Wesemann, author and law firm consultant with the Edge Group

Like the thousands of readers around the world who subscribe to his monthly newsletter Legal Trends, I am always impressed with the wisdom of Ed Wesemann, one of my partners at Edge International and co-owner of Legal Resource Group LLC. “Better Than Weeds,” his recent blog post on the subject of unused office space in law firms, is an excellent example of his direct and creative approach to problem-solving.

“‘Better than weeds’,” Wesemann says, “is what real estate developers call sub-optimum land uses to offset the tax and insurance costs of holding onto vacant property for future development.” Note the word “sub-optimum”: while there are several reasons why firms end up with more office space than they need, Wesemann says that in most cases it is a false economy to try to fill that space by bringing on new lawyers. In addition to explaining why firms usually lose even more money when they bring on laterals than they would if they had simply left the space unused, he offers some concrete suggestions on what firms can do with the space instead.

I found the article interesting and useful, and I am sure you will as well. Let me know your thoughts, either in the comments section below, or directly via email.