They are regarded as ‘paper tigers’, usually immersed in a world of legal clauses and regulations. In the past, solicitors often sat in labyrinthine offices, surrounded by metres-long shelves overflowing with specialist legal literature and file folders, with piles of folders and mountains of documents on their desks. Visitors – clients, experts or witnesses – had to make their way with some difficulty through rooms that often seemed rather gloomy and musty.
But this image is a thing of the past. Nowadays, modern law firms are fully digitised – documents, case files, reports: all of this is stored and processed digitally. The need for space has fallen dramatically, and the cumbersome storage of huge quantities of paper is no longer necessary. A laptop and smartphone are usually sufficient as work tools, in some cases supplemented by a fax machine, printer and scanner. Dr Henning Hartmann is a specialist solicitor in criminal and traffic law in north Berlin – he switched to modern law firm management years ago and is familiar with working in business centres: “The advantages are obvious: I can practically carry my office around in my briefcase. Only when I need to submit something to the court – such as powers of attorney signed by clients – do I still need to produce paper documents and then either post them or, in rare cases, hand them in in person. Otherwise, I can carry out my work without any problems in a very small space – and actually more quickly and efficiently than before. Business centres, with their flexible rental options, allow me, for example, to stay longer in a client’s place of residence if necessary – so in this way I can look after my clients’ interests much better and also expand my client base – and I am no longer limited to my own region, as I used to be. What’s more, the whole arrangement also has advantages for the client – they no longer have to travel to my office in Oranienburg, as they used to – but can meet me for meetings on site at a business centre.”
Dr André Helf, CEO of the Collection Group, attaches great importance to this client group: “COLLECTION Business Centres are extremely popular amongst lawyers because, in addition to office space and excellent facilities – including high-speed Wi-Fi, a friendly reception service and prestigious furnishings – they also feature meeting rooms equipped with state-of-the-art technical presentation facilities: There, experts and consultants can present digitally prepared evidence using moving images, graphics and animations, whilst lawyers can easily explain complex issues to their clients thanks to digital presentation tools. Complex legal issues, or topics in the fields of international trade, contract and financial law, frequently require teams of lawyers that vary in size depending on the progress of the proceedings – our office layouts can be adapted to these needs at any time. And, of course, the following always applies at COLLECTION Business Centres: you only pay for what you actually need and have booked, both in terms of the amount of space and the duration of the tenancy.”
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