No one who has been to the head office of a high-end law firm can fail to be dazzled. The atriums can be 100 feet high. The conference facilities seat 300. The modern art is tasteful and transparently pricey. And it is all to wow clients and new hires. 

"Law firm moves in London rank consistently as some of the largest and most valuable deals, according to property agent Cushman & Wakefield", reports the FT. For example, Freshfields' new head office of 250,000 square feet is set to cost a reported £16.5m per year.

But how does this fit with hybrid work patterns and digital-first interaction? If the staff aren't at the office, and neither are the clients, then engaging online is clearly critical in attracting talent and clients. So how much resource should be put into that endeavour?

Given that the future is digital, and that digital tends to have monopoly structures (see Amazon, Google and the rest), I would suggest that it would be extremely ill-advised to spend less than half of those offline costs on digital operations. 

The pandemic has freed up very considerable savings for law firms, but they must be reinvested or the digital reality will bite.