Jay Ibrahim Featured in New Jersey Law Journal Article on How Law Firms Are Dealing With Their Physical Office Space in 2021 Print PDF

Managing partner Jay Ibrahim was quoted along several other law firm leaders in the New Jersey Law Journal article, “How Real Estate Is Set to Become the 'No. 1 Question That Every Firm Will Have to Deal With.’”

The NJLJ notes that PIB Law opened in 2011 and expanded into several other locations, including Orange County, California, where it decided to take on more square footage than it immediately needed so it could grow into it and quickly filled that space.

Jay noted that when it comes to office space at this point in the pandemic timeline, he wouldn’t expand or contract at this point, because you could have unintended consequences down the road, noting that "one year or one and a half years is a blip on the radar if you’re in a 10-year lease. It’s still the cost of doing business."

Jay pointed out that when Covid happened, PIB Law was already prepared “for 95% of our workforce to work remotely” and when it was apparent that this wasn’t a short-term period at home, “We ended up deploying out even our hardware to people’s homes.”

When it comes to returning to the office, he said the firm has “no intention of setting any speed records of going back until we can do it safely and our people won’t feel forced or compelled.”

Jay highlighted that there is the potential for disruption in the legal industry in terms of how firms use their space. “It’s ‘a wait-and-see approach’ to determine what models are going to emerge after the pandemic…The physical workspace might look completely different in the future.”

“I think it’s going to be the biggest agenda item. We at Parker Ibrahim are lucky to have a long runway. But it will be, at some point, the No. 1 question that every firm will have to deal with.”

Read the full article (subscription required).