This article appeared in Commercial Leasing Law & Strategy, your monthly source for practical, must-have information on the business and legal aspects of commercial leases.

There are many opinions about what the workplace of the future will look like post COVID-19. Corporate America has long had mandates and best practice policies around remote working, improved office efficiency, sustainability and wellness. Over the past five years, law firms have gradually been adopting these same best practices for their organizations. With the coronavirus pandemic, there is focused attention and a sense of urgency regarding the employee health and wellbeing side of workplace best practices, while also a grave concern about the economic impact of implementation of these practices to the firm's occupancy cost and bottom line.

Many in the legal economy may be asking themselves whether they need office space at all now that everyone has been forcibly migrated to cyberspace. But having experienced work from home (WFH) for several months, there is a newfound appreciation for the office workplace. In fact, after just a few weeks of working from home, a CNBC poll of viewers on April 24, 2020 asking if workers expect to go back to the office found that 55% of people currently WFH expect to return to the office, 20% are not sure if they will be returning, and 24% (up from 9% previously) expect to work entirely/more from home. The past push toward denser and denser space utilization, with the addition of collaborative space options, will now evolve into a space focused on promoting employee health and wellbeing while accommodating agile, activity-based work in a sustainable way. The new legal office of the future may have a more robust remote working staff, with attorneys working from the office perhaps 50% of the time, and remotely 50% of the time, and perhaps some staff working (from home or a satellite/suburban office) remotely the majority of their time. Whether the remote working is through staggered workday shifts, alternating days/weeks in the office, or full-time will depend on the job function and level of social distancing and social interaction that needs to take place in the office.