Whether you are a solo attorney or a partner in a large firm, hosting a meeting outside your firm’s main office in a rented conference room can add serious value to your firm’s bottom line.
What is a conference room rental?
A conference room rental is a room rented on a temporary basis by a group, association or law firm for singular events such as conferences, meetings, employee training, and seminars. Law firms both large and small often choose a conference room rental for the following purposes:
- Depositions;
- Real estate and corporate transactional closings;
- Mediations;
- Litigation preparation;
- War room use in close proximity to a particular court; and
- Hosting a networking event
Reduce your overhead by eliminating leased office space.
If your firm leases an office space directly from the building’s landlord, consider reducing your space (and thus your overhead) by leveraging space at your local executive center. Your firm may have an occasional need for a large conference room for certain multi-party depositions or closings, or require multiple conference rooms on busy days. However, you may not need the extra space on a regular basis.
Recently, law firms are maintaining fewer (and smaller) conference rooms in their own offices, and are leveraging their local executive centers for bigger rooms or additional rooms when they require it. By doing so, the law firm saves thousands of dollars in rent over the lifetime of their lease.
How do firm’s save so much money? Here’s a dollars and cents approach to conference room costs.
An average conference room size is 400 square feet. If your firm pays $35.00 per square foot under its office lease, that conference room has a base cost of $1,517 per month when factoring in the 30% loss rate found in most urban commercial office buildings.
Then factor in the cost for utilities, cleaning and phone lines, at approximately $300 extra per month.
Don’t forget the cost of furniture. An average 10 person conference room table and chairs will run around $5,000.00, plus an extra $1,000 for artwork and a credenza.
The monthly cost for an extra conference room is $1,817.00 per month with additional one-time costs of $6,000.00.
Compare the “real cost” of an extra conference room with the “real cost” of renting a conference room from an executive office center. Most office providers charge clients $75.00 per hour and $350.00 per the day. For the monthly cost of the extra conference room in your existing office, you can get over 24 hours of conference room time if booked hourly, and over 41 hours if booked for full days, at an executive center.
Does your firm use that extra conference room enough to justify the cost?
Get our eBook: “The Indispensable Checklist for a Successful Conference Room Rental”
