Legal News

Reed Smith Settles Into New Digs

By Brian Harris

By Gina Passarella
Of the Legal Staff

After an intense weekend move, George Stewart, managing partner of Reed Smith?s Pittsburgh office, was hoping for only three things come Monday morning -- workable phones, computers and plumbing.

He said he got that and more at the firm?s new space at the PNC Bank Center in downtown Pittsburgh.

Between Friday night after the close of business and Sunday by 3 p.m., Reed Smith moved more than 5,000 boxes and readied more than 600 work spaces for more than 400 people who were ready to get back to work Monday morning.

The goal was to allow employees into the building by 3 p.m. Sunday to start unpacking boxes if they were interested and that goal was met, Stewart said.

As of Monday morning, Stewart declared mission accomplished. He said printers were whirring, phones were ringing and hours were being billed.

The next step is to get people acclimated with the new space. The firm has 191,690 square feet of space between the 7th and 13th floors of the building. The space is known as Reed Smith Center, and the firm has its own street-level entrance with signage bearing its name and a receptionist waiting to assist visitors.

As part of the acclimation process, the firm provided a continental breakfast in each of its five fully functioning kitchens. It also loaded up employees? accounts with credits to use at the firm?s very own restaurant upstairs.

Around 4 p.m. there was set to be a champagne toast to a successful move. Stewart said the clean transition was a testament to the admin team that helped orchestrate the move.

He said it was the ultimate exercise in collaboration given there isn?t any one thing a law firm does that requires cooperation from everyone in the office.

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on August 10, 2009 (boomark / email).