Thompson & Knight Just Does Not Get It

In reality it would seem that most Big Law firms do not get it.  They, like too many other companies in our nation, treat Green as nothing more than a marketing or publicity ploy.

This comes from the fact that Thompson & Knight, one of Dallas' oldest law firms, is moving into six floors totaling 180,000 square feet in One Arts Plaza in the DallasArts District. The gimmick is that the new office is "green" and more environmentally conscious.  But, in reality the office is wasteful and unnecessary.  They promote their new office as offering offer impressive and innovative features like a biometrics security system and a number of environmentally conscious design elements that can help the firm secure registration with the U.S. Green Building Council, lead-free glass to better transmission of light inside the offices and a specially designed "Mother's Room" has lactation equipment and other amenities for working mothers. The firm is pursuing LEED-CI Silver Certification, which recognizes interiors that are healthy, productive places to work and that are less costly to operate and have a reduced environmental footprint.

But, is 180,000 square feet really reducing the environmental footprint?  I think not.

The law firm just does not get it because they do not need a dairy at their offices, where their female attorneys and staff can chat while they are having to express themselves so some for-hire sitter can later feed the milk to their babies.  They do not need biometric security systems.  They do not need lead-free glass.  The space might hog less energy, but they do not need six floors hogging any amount of energy.  They do not need a monument in which to force their hundreds of attorneys and staff to commute to and from each day.  How much pollution does that cause Big D, how much oil and gas does that cost each of us every day, and the trauma this must cause the families and children (especially the newborns they seem to care about) of the lawyers and staff that work in this self-serving edifice?  Who are they trying to impress but themselves?  Not to mention all of this finish out and rent and CAM charges does nothing but take money out of the pockets of the partners, lawyers and staff.  Further, we need not forget that it is their clients that must pay for this monstrosity.

Just how difficult would it have been to have finished out a couple thousand square feet for meeting rooms for clients, deposition or trial prep, and then sent all of their attorneys and staff home to work, where mothers could actually nurse their children most of the time?  That would have been better for the attorneys and staff, for the environment, and for all of us.

Forget the finish out costs, at $36 a square foot per year (if that low) the law firm could have saved almost $6.5 million a year, and each employee could have saved thousands of dollars each year in commuting costs as well as wear and tear on their cars, not to mention it would have save Dallas and rest of us all of the pollution they cause on which we are choking physically and monetarily.

As you might be able to tell, I am not impressed. 

Comments

[Andrew Flusche]

I couldn't agree more, Chuck. I interned with two fancy Dallas firms, and the waste is simply despicable!

Winstead has a three-floor lobby on the top of Renaissance Tower. What's that for? To impress clients (and naive summer associates). But who pays for that? Clients. I guess it helps clients stomach $700/hour attorneys' fees, or whatever exorbitant rate they're charging to cover their overhead.

[Laurie/Halo Secretarial]

Reminds me of a tv show I watch called Green Homes where people have all the "green" features in their gigantic luxury homes (and only 2 people living in them usually). Green is about a lot more than features - it's about practicality and that is sadly lacking!