How your office looks and impacts clients/prospects can help or hurt your legal marketing efforts. Here are examples (and impressions that may result):
*Fancy office (firm is too expensive, or they must be very successful),
*Bland and Boring office (inexpensive, but possibly losers, or not very good),
*Old and Ugly office (also inexpensive, but doesn’t care about where I have to sit, or worse maybe he is out-of-date on the law as well),
*Messy Office (possibly reflects how she will handle my file, poorly organized, etc – sorry no upside on this one),
*Dark and Dreary Office (depressing, and I am already depressed just being here), and
*Outdated Magazines (only brings magazines from home, and reflects lawyer’s interests only [as in golf, crocheting, ballet, whatever).
Your office should reflect the type of clientele you service. Further, your office should meet your clients’ expectations. One way to ensure that is to ask your key clients what they think about your place of business (location is another issue, but ask them that while your at it).
In Small Firm Business there was an article that appeared in The Legal Intelligencer about how three firms approached the design of their offices. I particularly liked the one by the firm with a niche in the construction industry. It is best if your office reflects the business you are in and the type of clients you represent – without being showy or overly expensive for your client base.