We paid a visit to Hägen Wolf’s office to meet with their Partner, Matt Pugh. During our visit, Matt shared his experiences regarding the challenges businesses often face, his take on what makes a productive workspace, and why he chose Gilbanks as the base for his award-winning, boutique law firm.
Tell us a little bit about Hägen Wolf?
We are lawyers specialising exclusively on contentious property work. We only opened our doors in January 2020 and are now the largest and fastest growing property litigation boutique in the UK.
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve been faced with in the last year?
Like most industries – Recruitment! There seems to be a national shortage of lawyers and less candidates are actively job hunting. With at least some home working being the norm now, lawyers who would previously have been looking can live with the status quo, even at firm’s with dysfunctional cultures. This means we have had to invest a lot of time in headhunting. Home-working has also led big city firms to target people outside their usual geographical market with offers of a London salary without the cost of living in or commuting to London. This in turn has led to the big Leeds firms upping their salary packages considerably.
Despite the challenges though, Hägen Wolf have still been able to find some great new additions to the legal team. We now have nine specialist property litigation lawyers, with a 10th joining in a couple of months time.
What are the top three workspace must-haves for your team?
1) Friendly and helpful reception team
2) Private meeting rooms and lounge area for co-working
3) Clean, comfortable and minimalistic working environment with few distractions
What has been your clients’ perception of your office?
Visiting clients almost always compliment us on our offices at One Park Row, in particular the welcoming and professional front of house team and the beautifully designed reception, business lounge and meeting rooms.
Tell us a little about the other businesses and people you meet at One Park Row?
In my eyes One Park Row is a prime office location, not just because of its close proximity to the station, but because of the calibre of businesses based here who are ready and willing to work with you. We have already worked alongside and built strong relationships with a number of companies that we’re sure will propel our business forward over the next few months.
What would you say makes Gilbanks stand out from the other serviced office providers?
For me it is all about how you feel when you are here. We host events here and invite clients and other key contacts to visit and we want them to feel special. The offices, lounge area and meeting rooms give off a unique, boutique hotel vibe and are always pristine. At the same time, whilst many serviced offices are predominantly creative or tech hubs, One Park Row is a perfect fit for professional services businesses. The team on reception are also very helpful and frequently go out of their way to accommodate our requests. They have also made it very easy to upsize as we have grown (often at short notice), handling all the logistics as part of the service.
