Linklaters is moving its 1,200-lawyer City headquarters out of Silk Street after 30 years to take up 14 floors at 20 Ropemaker in Moorgate from 2026.
The firm’s move to new 300,000sq ft premises in the 27-storey building will reduce its floor space by about 25%, but managing partner Gideon Moore said Linklaters will be able to use the space more efficiently.
‘The building will provide us with the flexibility to accommodate any changes,’ Moore told Legal Business just after signing the lease this morning (13 February). ‘I’m not making the assumption that we’ll have fewer lawyers in London. We have enough space to accommodate not just what we think we’ll be in six but in 16 years’ time.’
The building is due for completion in the last quarter of 2022, and Linklaters will be running a series of pilots to ‘work out what working environment will be more suitable’ for its staff at the time of the move, ‘whether it’s the single office approach, open plan or a combination of the two’, said Moore.
One of the key items on Moore’s agenda since his appointment as managing partner in January 2016, Linklaters started searching for new premises around two years ago.
‘We had a wish list which included location, the developer and landlord, the quality of the product, most importantly the working environment that it would provide for our people and clients,’ said Moore. ‘As with all properties, you try to get as close to your wish list as you can anticipating that you will have to make some compromises. I can honestly say we didn’t have to make a single compromise.’
‘What’s really pleasing is the uniform support we have received from the firm, not just in London but around the network.’
Office moves have been high on the agenda of other City firms too in recent years. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer will this year bid farewell to Fleet Street after three decades and move to 100 Bishopsgate, while Ashurst relocated its London operations to Brushfield Street last year.
This article first appeared on Legal Business.