DLA Piper Commits to Statement Office Move

DLA Piper signals intention for major landmark office move in 2023, proving the statement office is not yet out of fashion.


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LONDON (Within the Law) - At a time when many law firms are rolling back from landmark office moves, DLA Piper is heading in the opposite direction. Their move into a new statement office building in Leeds is an indication of a firm with big plans for the future. 

DLA Piper says it will take more than 80,000sq ft of office space in the new City Square House development. The £85 million development will stand on the Wellington Street side of the square near Leeds City Station with development due to start in May. 

The move, says the firm, comes through a need to modernise its existing building and bring its 600 employees from its existing two sites in the city together. However, it also comes at a time when other law firms have been cutting back on their office space. Big office moves have been shelved as law firms embrace the flexibility of remote working. 

DLA Piper says it also plans to be more flexible. As with other firms, the pandemic had changed the way they work and will continue to do so. Work will become more flexible, with people spending more and more of their time working from home. 

Even so, speaking to the Yorkshire Post Andrew Dyson, managing partner of their Leeds office, said that, while work would become more flexible, the office would continue to play an integral role.  

“The way we’re going to be working in the future is likely to be different to the way we’ve been working in the past with the need for more flexible working space,” he explained. “Having more people working from home was already starting to happen but it has been accelerated by Covid.”

He added that “we have the flexibility to give everyone their own space but if the trade-off is that you don’t have your own desk but you get more working space to share and collaborate then that’s a conversation I want to have.”

The new City Square House Development is due to open in 2023 and will come with its own café, an open plan design and a roof garden. 

(Written by Tom Cropper, edited by Klaudia Fior)

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