Haynes and Boone: 'Green' Offices. 'Orwellian' Controls
The Texas based law firm of Haynes and Boone moved their Dallas operations into a new "green" office today. Despite the laudable initiative, some lawyers and many support staffers have complained about the new "confines." Apparently, personal space is at a premium in the new space. Administrative assistants are particularly annoyed, as they will be moved out of cubicles into an open floor plan, "fishbowl" situation.
In addition to the lack of privacy, Haynes and Boone issued new policies regarding how secretaries use the personal space they still have. Most of the new rules meet an accepted standard of "petty.":
2. There will be a sufficient number of small plants that Gensler will place in appropriate areas around our floors. You may have one 8-inch potted plant in your office or on your desk--none on the ledges.3. Please do not put any objects or plants on ledges or the tops of your cabinets. Two framed pictures and a small candy dish may be placed on your desk, but no beanie babies on desks.
You're moving into new environmentally friendly offices, but you're going to regulate the number and types of plants employees are allowed to have? That's not directly contradictory, but it's certainly annoying.
Additional regulations after the jump.
The rules seemed to be only directed at the secretarial staff. Arguably, lawyers are allowed to have a mini-rain forest in their offices. Says one disgruntled tipster:
[Haynes] couldn't have picked a worse time to crack down on personalization of work areas. Both staff and attorneys are up in arms about having our spaces drastically shrunk, and secretaries especially (at whom this memo is primarily aimed) are unhappy about the move from cubicles that provided them a little bit of privacy to the new "open office concept" that packs them cheek-by-jowl in fishbowls.
The economy is tanking, people are losing their 401Ks, the new offices are smaller and less private, and Haynes and Boone is legislating how people are allowed to ingest nutrients:
5. Eating meals or snacks at your desk or in your office is discouraged. Also, no food will be allowed in the training rooms. All meals should be eaten in the lunch room on the 6th floor, except on those rare occasions when there is a client-imposed deadline that prevents you from leaving your area. If a medical condition requires something different, please contact Human Resources.6. There will be free fruit and drinks in the lunch room and break out areas. Drinks at your desk should be covered at all times when not being consumed. With raised flooring, in case of a spill, we don't want liquids to seep through the flooring. Lids and coasters for your drinks will be provided.
And while we're here, make sure there is nothing at your desk that makes it look like "your" desk:
8. Office decorations (i.e. wall pictures, framed degrees and/or certifications, objects on desks and shelves, plants, holiday decorations, etc.). We ask everyone to please work in your area for at least 60 - 90 days before any decorating is done. Personal shelves, area rugs, or furniture will not be allowed at the new space. Nothing should be affixed to the glass doors or windows. At this time, no lights or lamps should be used on your desk. Facilities will assist with hanging your pictures after 60 days.
We know that a lot of support staff and administrative assistants read ATL. Are these measures draconian, or merely insulting?
Haynes and Boone's firm motto is "Turning the formerly frustrated... into the presently ecstatic." How is that working out?
Earlier: K&L Gates to Nickels and Dimes
(106) Comments
FIRST!!!!!!
FIRST!!!!!!
Yes, let me remove by beanie baby from my desk and STICK IT UP YOUR ASS!!!!
here, not hear
And while we're HEAR.
Are you kidding?
"And while we're hear [sic], make sure there is nothing at your desk that makes it look like "your" desk:"
Wow. I mean, cmon...
while we are hear?
"while we're hear" ? ? ? ? ?
fail. E.P.I.C. F.A.I.L.
HB = preschool
If that firm's superiors feel like they need to tell attorney where they can and cannot eat, then WHO IN THE FUCK WOULD WANT TO HIRE THESE PEOPLE????
Seriously? Your own firm doesn't trust you eating at your desk????
C'mon guys, spell check wouldn't catch that one. I mean, you can't expect a HLS grad's grammar to be perfect.
i'm nervous about being in a texas fish bowl
-nervous t-10 1L
This should have been replaced with a general reminder to the staff (and attorneys) that clients are sometimes in the office and the firm wants to appear professional, so decorating decisions should take this into consideration.
If anyone doesn't get the hint, talk to them privately about the problem instead of making a bunch of dumb rules.
haynes and boone = where tttulane grads go to die and hump jellyfish
Clearly, nobody in management at HB has ever seen 9 to 5. As I understand it from that film, the only recourse available to the administrative assistants will be to hog tie the head of HR.
i would like a beanie baby of mystal. of course, i'm sure it would be more of a beanie toddler, but still.
Nervous t-10 1L, I want to put you in a fishbowl filled with starving piranhas.
3: please work your magic on #11.
Nothing is really being enforced right now. They are putting out all the rules like the guy who buys a new car and INSISTS that clean your shoes before you get in because he's going to keep it pristine.
Those secretaries should be happy they still have jobs. I work in a fishbowl, too. BFD.
when I was in high school everyone worked in a fishbowl, it was no big deal.
HB also requires all employees to wear adult diapers in the event of a surprise bowel movement that occurs outside of the regularly scheduled 5 minute bathroom break (immediately after lunch). In furtherance of the green initiative, all feces deposited within the diapers will be collected at day's end, added to the office compost pile, and soon after applied to the plants.
damn, texas sucks. This would never happen in dc.
Akin Gump's New York office moved into its new "green" offices today. As of yet, no restrictions on beanie babies in the secretarial areas. Of course, the self-limiting factor of shame and ridicule still applies to attorneys.
Many of these "rules" come from the LEED Certification process, like restrictions on desk lights. I'm not sure about the beanie baby thing, though.
take heart that the staff will be healthier - HB moved them 2 mlies away from the nearest light rail station so they now can walk further to get to the fish bowl - it's not easy being green
i'm nervous tulane grads
-nervous t-10 1L
i'm nervous tulane grads
-nervous t-10 1L
21 - comment of the day
take heart that the staff will be healthier - HB moved them 2 mlies away from the nearest light rail station so they now can walk further to get to the fish bowl - it's not easy being green
i'm nervous about working in a fishbowl
-nervous t-10 1L
take heart that the staff will be healthier - HB moved them 2 mlies away from the nearest light rail station so they now can walk further to get to the fish bowl - it's not easy being green
nervous guy --- please please die.
Baby Face Palin
i'm nervous about showering with men during gym class
-nervous t-10 1L
I think Mystttal is doing this on purpose to keep us reading his stuff. Seriously...A 10th grader would catch this.
28 = 21
Is it sad that I can tell who is and isn't the real nervous t-10 1L?
SkaddenDC tried to go green. I guess it did not work out to well. At least they tried. Maybe they should have been a little more focused on the bottom line. Sorry about your little red office, bro, that sucks.
Confident 3L.
HB's new office = they got a great deal because they moved to a new area where everything is under construction for the next 5 years. Super cheap. = more PPP. HB is regarded as the cheapest Dallas firm.
As far as actually functioning in the new office, there are no places to eat in the area...to get a deli sandwich one now needs to spend half an hour getting out of the parking lot and driving past all the construction detours to find a Subway. How does the firm deal with this? They are providing subsidized lunches in the firm cafeteria. Hope you like turkey and ham everyday.
The new office also has a limited number of regular offices, so future summer associates and entry-level associates can look forward to internal offices/storage rooms, unless they fire existing associates (which they don't need to do b/c attrition is usually pretty high over there)
Bottom line: pray you get an offer from V&E, Fulbright or Baker Botts, because second-tier firms like HB suck.
HB Houston, let the layoffs begin.
Doesn’t this firm realize that being able to eat at your desk is good for productivity?
"take heart that the staff will be healthier - HB moved them 2 mlies away from the nearest light rail station so they now can walk further to get to the fish bowl - it's not easy being green"
I work in Dallas... honestly people... mass transit? Really? This isn't NY or DC. Everyone drives anyway.
I am visualizing these administrative assistants (I think that is the PC term now, I never know) as Milton from office space. Second?
If the need to eat at your desk is only the rarest of client-driven emergencies, this firm has issues.
Elie, why the hell haven't you posted on this? This is something that directly affects lawyers in Biglaw and law students. Describe the story. Talk about the frims that are doing this work. Describe how litigation might finally being living up to its reputation as being counter-cyclical. Do a little research and find the other firms that are doing it. These are the firms that law students (and associates fearing for their jobs) should be applying to, because they might actually need more people. This crap is obvious, and Lat would have done it already. Seriously, how the hell did you get this job? Did you mom vote for you 200 times?
Defense Lawyers See Bonanza From Lehman, Bear, Other Collapses
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=awuOjwqgyeN8&refer=home
Embarrassing. I guess TTTULANE grads need somewhere to go.
Elie, why the hell haven't you posted on this? This is something that directly affects lawyers in Biglaw and law students. Describe the story. Talk about the frims that are doing this work. Describe how litigation might finally being living up to its reputation as being counter-cyclical. Do a little research and find the other firms that are doing it. These are the firms that law students (and associates fearing for their jobs) should be applying to, because they might actually need more people. This crap is obvious, and Lat would have done it already. Seriously, how the hell did you get this job? Did you mom vote for you 200 times?
Defense Lawyers See Bonanza From Lehman, Bear, Other Collapses
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=awuOjwqgyeN8&refer=home
HB--you are a sad, sad little firm. It's bad enough these people have to live and work in Dallas, but now this. What does "green" office space have to do with me having snacks in my office?
44,46 please only one post per customer. Thank you.
Dreadful. TTT does even come close to describing this firm. I rather hang out with nervous t-10 all day than to walk into this Dallas shit-bucket.
dallas, you f'in disgust me.
has anyone seen the video they have about this on the haynes and boone website? does the law firm actually hire people to make such videos? why do their clients give legal work to a no-name firm that makes videos about office buildings and tells their employees not to bring lamps into their office?
I guess the hurricane took away common sense from that office
"Why do their clients give legal work to a no-name firm that makes videos about office buildings and tells their employees not to bring lamps into their office?"
Maybe because clients care about one thing: winning with reasonable total cost.
"I'm sorry you're from Dallas."
#21 your post is the best. This firm is ridiculous. I hope management is reading this. I thought not getting to eat in the conference room was bad.......
41 - if Dallas was DC or NY they would be too busy laying off ivy league wonks instead of figuring out which shelf gets the cactus.
51 - check out an atlas
Could all of the Texas haters please finish their comments by saying where they live? I can understand someone NY bashing Texas (as NY is filled to the brim with cynical, beaten-down asses), but if people like 47, 49 and 50 work or go to school in Philly, Atlanta, Miami, Denver, California (not including LA) or any other part of the former Confederacy, then I could really care less what they have to say about Dallas or Houston (or their law firms).
Sincerely,
Someone from Dallas (along with Houston, the 4th and 6th largest metro areas in the country) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Statistical_Area
who runs that show over there anyways?
who runs that show over there anyways?
who runs that show over there anyways?
who runs that show over there anyways?
I love how people extrapolate an image of the entire firm from one email. Maybe this should be kept in mind:
http://www.vault.com/nr/lawrankings.jsp?law2009=6&ch_id=242&best20=1
Of course, Nixon Peabody beats us by three, but I bet we could pull ahead of that by a really good jingle on youtube.
57-60 - someone who gets it right in one post.
21 is brilliant. I think I'm in love.
Dear lord baby jesus. How about increasing the population of Kwicherbichin just a little bit? Economy is in the tank and people are complaining about the cubicle situation in the firm's brand new building in Victory Park?
How ironic: the peak of entitlement running into the valley of employment demand.
I do appreciate that staff does not like to be dictated to like inmates. But can we not take the pin-headed instructions in stride and accept the fact that we will all promptly ignore them? I, for one, appreciate being out in the open and actually talking to my colleagues instead of being cooped up in a Dilbert-icle.
56 - have you ever actually been to "California (not including LA)"? Not that bad, akshully.
partners and associates ge the same size offices!
oops partners and associates get the same size offices!
HB's policy sounds bad prima facie, but as someone who worked there (in the Houston Office), it's a simply wonderful place, with very kind staff, attorneys, and partners. I can't imagine them applying the policy as it's written. <3 HB
"Someone from Dallas (along with Houston, the 4th and 6th lamest metro areas in the country) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Statistical_Area"
Fixed for 56. You're welcome.
Take note naysayers -- other firms are dropping associates like the fungible widgets you probably are, while hayboo is making partner and associate offices the same size, occupying a fabulous new space, and continuing its growth in Texas, DC and NY (not to mention CA to come). I'll gladly sacrifice a beanie baby on my desk and suffer a silly little memo, that's hardly likely to be enforced, to work at a place like Hayboo that has heart, financial stability, and a long-term strategy that makes you marquee-obsessed associates with no life give a second thought as you pack your offices, are escorted out of the building without ceremony, and try to figure out what to do next.
haynes boone? is this a law firm?
never heard of it.
Wow, your firm doesn't even give you access to internet. So sad. Go to an internet cafe and type: www.haynesboone.com. Then check the vault surveys.
As far as the rules go, when we came to unpack yesterday, Hillwood was giving away food for us to take up with us to our offices, and there have been spreads out pretty much the whole time since then.
Does this apply to the Bratislava office? Beanie babies are really taking off there.
Does this apply to the Bratislava office? Beanie babies are really taking off there.
Who would want to wor k at Haynes and Boone? Same pay as all of the big firms in NY, DC, LA, Chicago, and TX with a lower billable hour requirement and lower cost of living. What a terrible place.
Some of these negative comments are incredibly exaggerated. Granted there’s not a generic deli in the lobby of the new building yet – but there are lunch options around Victory Park (and if you’re driving half an hour – are you trying to get to a Subway in Fort Worth?). The offices look great and I’ve been eating (the free food they’ve been giving out every few hours) at my desk all day – delicious!
Haynes and Boone sounds like a pretty badass backup option.
This is consistent with my impression of HB after making the mistake of interviewing there during 2L. Without getting into specifics, I can confirm that there is something very, very wrong with that firm. I would never in a million years work there.
I hope the store will let me to return the medium candy dish I purchased to celebrate moving into the new office.
Dallas? No thanks!
Quick Question...
Better to go with the mothership office of V60 firm or a satellite of a V30 firm in Houston?
They're probably just trying to keep their brand new offices nice...this isn't really scandalous or newsworthy.
HB is actually a great place to work
Big deal. My firm has similar restrictions on the secretarial stations. It's a question of keeping the areas clean and professional. It's not like they can close the door so clients walking by don't see the mess.
82 - Are you talking about VE/BB v. Akin Gump? If that's the case, VE (and even BB, but to a lesser extent) is a far superior option. If you're talking VE/BB v. Mayer Brown, definitely VE/BB. MB Houston has been in a downward spiral lately. If you're talking VE/BB v. Skadden - a much tougher call. VE/BB v. Weil - definitely VE/BB. The problem with Weil, MB and Akin in Houston is that they are barely an afterthought of the firm as a whole - none of the offices are very important to the firm as a whole. If you want to make partner, your chances are a little better at VE or BB, and your opportunities to go in-house (somewhere else in town) will be better from VE or BB bc those firms are extremely well respected in town.
Another blow to asset values behind the beanie baby backed securities market. Nothing is safe these days.
Of the four firms I worked at my 1L and 2L summers, HB Houston is by far the best place I've worked. However, their Dallas office has a completely different culture from what I hear.
The vitriolic outbursts of the people on here concerning a firm about which they most likely know next-to-nothing is truly amazing. Yes, HB doesn't go out for drinks with the high-brows of the Vault top-10, but that doesn't mean they're a bad firm or deserving of the ass-whipping the majority of you are giving them. Grow up, people.
76 is right on. Kudos.
70, 76, 89, etc.: I'm glad to hear some people sticking up for Haynes & Boone. I was a summer in Dallas, and if you want a nice place with nice people, this is where to go. And at the end of the day, unless you're a shallow attention hog, isn't that more important than Vault ranking?
I meant summer in Houston. Fail.
But it really is a great place. And so is Texas (just visit).
I'm sure HB is a good firm with good people, but the website and food policy make them seem like they are taking themselves a bit more seriously then they should considering their place in the general law firm world, where prestige does matter.
"This is consistent with my impression of HB after making the mistake of interviewing there during 2L. Without getting into specifics, I can confirm that there is something very, very wrong with that firm. I would never in a million years work there."
Thanks for the confirmation from your less-than-four-hour visit (if you even got a call back). Everyone has some bad interview experiences, but people who actually work or worked at HB give it higher marks than virtually any other major firm. I guess I could comment on my gut reactions from several V10-50 shops I did flybacks for, but why would anyone care?
The other comments on this thread already state the obvious: same cash, better people, better hours = better life. My non-lawyer friends don't even know what the hell "Vault" is anyway.
In addition, HB's fiscally conservative approach to a law firm means that it will be the last firm to send its attorneys packing.....SUCKAZ!
The free food is to speed up the metabolism so the formaldehyde outgassing from the new carpets does less lasting (read actionable) health damage. How can you all be so naive, these Big Law Firm Partners think of everything.
Why do we care about this? This is a law blog, not a secretary blog.
Allen & Overy is moving into open plan seating assignments as well. Apparently it's the British way (and despite what they tell us, we are very much an outpost of a British firm). I've seen the open plan seating in London and it does work well there - but this ain't London. Everyone is dreading it here and you can imagine the political machinations the admin staff are going through to determine who gets an office (e.g., "I'm an HR manager, so I need an office for confidential conversations, but you don't...).
Allen & Overy is moving into open plan seating assignments as well. Apparently it's the British way (and despite what they tell us, we are very much an outpost of a British firm). I've seen the open plan seating in London and it does work well there - but this ain't London. Everyone is dreading it here and you can imagine the political machinations the admin staff are going through to determine who gets an office (e.g., "I'm an HR manager, so I need an office for confidential conversations, but you don't...).
I worked at Haynes and Boone for nearly 3 years. It's a horrible workplace, and HR doesn't care one bit about staff or secretaries. Just keep the attorneys happy even at the expense of the secretaries and staff.
I worked at Haynes and Boone for nearly 3 years. It's a horrible workplace, and HR doesn't care one bit about staff or secretaries. Just keep the attorneys happy even at the expense of the secretaries and staff.
I worked at Haynes and Boone for nearly 3 years. It's a horrible workplace, and HR doesn't care one bit about staff or secretaries. Just keep the attorneys happy even at the expense of the secretaries and staff.
I worked at Haynes and Boone for nearly 3 years. It's a horrible workplace, and HR doesn't care one bit about staff or secretaries. Just keep the attorneys happy even at the expense of the peons.
I worked at Haynes and Boone for nearly 3 years. It's a horrible workplace, and HR doesn't care one bit about staff or secretaries. Just keep the attorneys happy even at the expense of the peons.
I worked at Haynes and Boone for nearly 3 years. It's a horrible workplace, and HR doesn't care one bit about staff or secretaries. Just keep the attorneys happy even at the expense of the peons.
#96 "Why do we care about this? This is a law blog, not a secretary blog."
Fine then. If you're an attorney, try to get every single task you need done day in and day out without an assistant. If you can do that, then you're obviously not a very busy.
I think a productive company who wants to stay productive keeps its employees happy - ALL its employees.
I never heard of HaynesBoone prior to this posting. Now I looked up their website and it appears to be a middle of the road, BS firm somewhere down south. WTF?