Baker: Pioneering ways of working. The first lawyers without an office.

To summarize the project’s conceptualization, we outline the key challenges identified:

• Addressing the growing complexity of client cases by adopting a multidisciplinary approach across the company’s various services.

• Improving collaboration between different areas to foster a unified culture and provide more integrated services.

• Embracing digital transformation to improve agility and efficiency, thereby boosting productivity and service value.

• Attracting and retaining new generations of talent, who demanded more collaborative, flexible and technological working environments.

• Developing new leadership models that emphasize team management and career development for associates.

To respond to these challenges we needed to create a new framework for ways of working, which included a new spatial concept and a roadmap for the adoption of new dynamics.

The Solution: daring to change

Leveraging the move to a new headquarters in December of that year as a catalyst for change, a strategy was developed around five vectors: collaboration and multidisciplinarity, customer orientation, agility and efficiency, sense of belonging and brand pride, and flexibility.

The model that was ultimately adopted represented a significant shift from the traditional ways of working that had previously defined the sector.

The basic premises were:

• Reducing visible status symbols to bring partners and associates closer together: elimination of offices, standardisation of technological equipment and democratisation of access to light and spatial resources.

• Designing the space to accommodate professionals’ needs with a 50/50 balance between individual and collaborative work.

• Optimising technology, improving resources, and committing to digitalisation and collaborative tools.

• Promoting greater self-management and empowerment of professionals, creating a more flexible and agile decision-making environment.

• Designing processes to be more efficient and allow innovation to emerge.

• Cultivating a more open culture and a closer relationship with clients and society.

The keys to success: science and methodology

Reaching this point, with a spatial model and ways of working so distinct from the rest of the sector, required considerable persuasion. The analysis phase, data collection, and diagnostic methodology were crucial in convincing partners to make an objective and bold decision to transform, especially given the lack of success stories in the sector, none of them in Spain.

For instance, it was highlighted that, despite the importance of collaboration in enhancing customer responsiveness, only 21% of the space was allocated to collaborative areas.

Such data was essential to understand that the measures had to be ambitious in order to achieve real change.

This data played a significant role in the change process, providing reassurance to more resistant individuals by demonstrating that these decisions were not trend-driven but were made to address genuine organisational needs.

The Results: some indicators of the project’s success

After the implementation of the action plan, the results were remarkable:

• Digitisation: Incorporating new tools and digitising knowledge allowed to reduce the number of printers by  52% and printouts by 39%.

• Incremento de la colaboración informal: Además del feedback trasmitido por los profesionales sobre la mejora en la colaboración se observó una disminución de llamadas realizadas por los profesionales en un 68%, lo que reflejó un cambio en la forma de comunicación, mucho más cercanas y cara a cara, y la adopción de tecnologías más eficientes como Teams.
  

• Space adapted to needs: With a 4000 m² headquarters and a capacity of 280 people, the new space allowed for greater collaboration and flexibility in the use of common areas, removing physical barriers and fostering a more dynamic working culture. 
  

Conclusion: pioneers and seeds of change

Baker McKenzie initiated unprecedented change in Spain’s legal sector, establishing itself as a pioneer in company experience and New Ways of Working. This leadership position offers the firm a competitive edge, enabling it to take advantage of the benefits of the new model ahead of others.

Over nearly 10 months, the BMove project challenged previously unquestioned elements and transformed rigid paradigms, shifting towards a model that prioritizes efficiency, innovation, people, and clients through a scientific and participatory approach.

As a result of this project, the firm has continued to build on these pillars and today claims to have an outstanding position when it comes to attracting and retaining talent, as well as generating a differential customer experience.