Gilbert + Tobin’s new Sydney offices in Barangaroo will be completely open plan, managing partner Danny Gilbert has revealed. This was just one of the topics discussed during a filmed ALB Roundtable discussion involving the managing partners of King & Wood Mallesons, Curwoods, Herbert Smith Freehills, Mills Oakley and Clifford Chance.

Gilbert said that he was motivated by a desire to eliminate barriers to free communication. “I think there’s a lot of symbolic barriers around offices, if not actual barriers,” he said. “You want younger lawyers to have free and ready access to partners. I bought the theory, time will tell. I bought the theory at great expense.”

Other aspects of open plan discussed by the panel included the cost savings associated with open plan, which were described as negligible, and the practical need to phase in open plan arrangements over several years.

To view the clip of this panel discussion, please click here.  Full coverage of the Roundtable will appear in ALB issue 11.12.