Eversheds Sutherland's office in the Quarry Bay district of Hong Kong / Photos: Scott Brooks/Imagennix

Eversheds Sutherland recently moved to a new Hong Kong office – one that is large, modern and takes advantage of Hong Kong's stellar views. And the move has, according to firm management, helped to boost morale.

"We had an injection of self-confidence which has elevated us," said Asia managing partner Stephen Kitts. "We all feel good about ourselves."

The firm moved into a brand-new 22,000-square-foot office in Hong Kong's up-and-coming Quarry Bay district. The firm is now one of nine international firms, including Baker McKenzie, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, Simmons & Simmons and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, that have moved to Quarry Bay from more traditional business districts such as Central, where Eversheds was previously based, and Admiralty, an extension of Central.

In recent years, law firms have been moving for affordable rents. Top office space in Quarry Bay, which is a 15-minute drive from Central, can be rented for one third of the cost of office rentals in Central, the most expensive office address in the world for the past four years.

According to a report by property consultancy CBRE, the average monthly rent for office space in Central during the second quarter of this year was about $18 per square feet; that compares to just $7 for the Hong Kong East district, which includes Quarry Bay.

Eversheds' Kitts said moving to Quarry Bay will save the firm rental dollars in the long run, but it is cost-effective for other reasons: the new office almost doubles the size of the firm's previous location in Central.

"The [Hong Kong] office has grown substantially," Kitts said. "It reached maximum capacity."

Indeed, in the 10 years that Eversheds has been in Hong Kong, the firm has grown from six people to 140, about 60 of whom are lawyers.

But that kind of space is difficult to find in Central. According to the CBRE report, the vacancy rate in Central was just 1.5% in the second quarter. "There's very little available space in Central," Kitts noted. "We wanted 20,000 square feet, but there was no vacancy."

So Eversheds turned to One Taikoo Place, a brand-new 48-storey triple-grade-A office tower owned by Swire Properties Ltd., one of the largest developers in Hong Kong. Completed in late 2018, the building has also attracted Big Law tenants such as Baker McKenzie, Reynolds Porter Chamberlain and Simmons & Simmons.

"We are still planning to grow and wanted a space to future-proof the business," said Kitts, adding that the new office still has space to house about 25 more people. "We won't be cramming people in," he said.

For a similar set up in Central, Eversheds would have had to make compromises, Kitts added. Being in Quarry Bay allowed the firm to invest more in the interiors. "What we've done is invest the money in a high-quality fitout. We've pushed the quality to a high end," he said.

The firm hired local architect and design firm Spatial Concept, which designed the Hong Kong offices of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and DLA Piper, as well as French designer label agnès b.

"We were able to demonstrate to the partners that we were going to do it in a high-quality way and give assurance that we're not doing it to save money," Kitts said.

Despite the benefits of relocating to Quarry Bay, most global firms remain in Central for the proximity to their banking clients and access to high-end hotels, restaurants and bars in Central. Lawyers can also meet clients flying to Hong Kong more easily, as there is a high-speed train connecting Central to the airport.

To make up for the extra commute, Eversheds hired a dedicated driver, which can take lawyers to Central in 15 minutes, Kitts said.

It helps that some clients are also in Quarry Bay, such as JPMorgan Chase & Co., which has an office in One Island East, another new office tower by Swire Properties. (Media reports have said the bank will relocate to a business district even further away from Central.)

Other banks such as BNP Paribas and the Royal Bank of Canada are also in Quarry Bay, as well as asset manager AXA Investment Managers, several insurers including Chubb, Big Four accounting firm EY and social media giant Facebook. The Securities and Futures Commission will also move from Central to One Island East in 2020. By moving, the city's securities regulator will be able to cut its rent in half, according to the South China Morning Post.

Another major upgrade for Eversheds' new Hong Kong office is that it's open-plan, which Kitts prefers to call "agile working". Many Hong Kong staffers put flexibility at the top of their wishlist for the new office, Kitts said.

At the old office, which had the common traditional office plan, practice groups were siloed and could go days without seeing other teams, he said. But with the open-plan setup, there are no walls blocking one group from another, allowing teams to collaborate more freely. Staff also have the choice of working at their desks, which can be raised to standing mode, and they can choose to interact freely with others or work in privacy in a soundproof booth.

The new flexibility, investment in high-end interiors and doubling of its office space demonstrate that Eversheds intends to continue to grow in Hong Kong, said Kitts.

"When you walk around here, this is a statement to our commitment in Hong Kong and about who we are," he said. "It has been a transformational move."

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