Fish & Richardson

Overview

Opportunity

Solution

Impact

Team

Fish & Richardson’s Munich office balances privacy, flexibility, and wellbeing. Gensler’s open, welcoming design reflects their culture and redefines the modern law firm experience.

Location

Munich, Germany

Client

Fish & Richardson

Expertise

Professional Services [FPO] Workplace

Opportunity

The tower’s narrow floorplate reinforced conventional offices and corridors, prompting a reimagining of collaborative and social spaces within the workplace.

Fish & Richardson required a workplace that supports collaboration and flexibility while maintaining the privacy and discretion of legal practice. Located in Munich’s Highlight Towers, the top-floor office offers exceptional views but is constrained by a narrow floorplate and traditional corridor layout. The design reinterprets these limitations, improving access to daylight and creating opportunities for connection, collaboration, and a more engaging workplace experience within an efficient legal environment.

Why This Matters

01
Modernising the Legal Practice
Legal work is evolving, with teams increasingly working across offices, disciplines, and time zones. The workplace needed to support more fluid ways of working while adapting to changing expectations around how legal teams connect and operate.
02
Balancing Privacy and Collaboration
The design needed to accommodate different levels of interaction and confidentiality, from focused individual work and private client conversations to informal collaboration and knowledge sharing.
03
Bringing Light Into Traditional Layouts
Shared spaces were carefully positioned along the façade to improve access to daylight, creating a brighter and more welcoming environment throughout the workplace for all teams.

FPO Quote

Solution

By rethinking a conventional legal office, Gensler created a warm, adaptable workplace that seamlessly integrates privacy, collaboration, wellbeing, and intuitive spatial experiences.

Gensler reimagined Fish & Richardson’s workplace as a connected, welcoming environment, balancing the privacy and focus essential to legal work with shared offices, open assistant areas and collaboration spaces with infused with hospitality-inspired settings. Within the steel-and-glass framework of Highlight Towers, rounded forms, warm timber, tactile acoustic finishes, and the firm’s signature blue bring warmth and character. The result is a workplace that feels intuitive and contemporary, creating a dynamic setting where focused work, collaboration, and connection come together while expressing Fish & Richardson’s distinct identity.

Through an iterative design process, Gensler tested multiple planning strategies to create a workplace balancing privacy, collaboration, and an exceptional user experience.

Gensler worked closely with Fish & Richardson to test buildings and layouts before returning to the tower for its views, prominence, and location. The design team then addressed the narrow floorplate by transforming circulation into a more open workplace journey. Curved forms, shared settings, and light-filled destinations at either end of the floor create connection and variety while preserving the privacy expected in a high-performing legal environment.

Opening the Floor Plate

The design process reworked circulation, opening the narrow floorplate to create clearer routes, shared destinations, and greater visual connection.

Impact

Fish & Richardson’s Munich office turns a constrained tower floorplate into a flexible legal workplace that supports focus, connection, and wellbeing.

Nearly 40 people now work from one light-filled floor with private offices, collaboration zones, client spaces, and a dedicated wellness room.

What Changed Because of This

01
Stronger Culture
Shared destinations encourage spontaneous interaction, helping build relationships and create a greater sense of belonging
02
Greater Agility
The workplace supports a broader range of activities and work modes, enabling legal teams to collaborate more effectively while maintaining individual focus.
03
Elevated Workplace
Better access to natural light, views, and communal spaces enhances the everyday experience, creating a more engaging and attractive environment.

We reimagined a constrained floorplate to create a warm, connected workplace that balances privacy, flexibility and wellbeing, redefining what a modern legal office can be.

Recognition

01

Office Snapshots

Feature on Gensler’s design of Fish & Richardson’s Munich office.

Team

Project Leadership

[FPO] Ingrid Christensen

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[FPO] Peter Schäfer

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Philip Tidd

Philip Tidd is a Principal and Regional Client Relationships Leader, based in Gensler’s Paris office. With more than 25 years of experience in workplace consultancy, real estate advisory, design and urban strategy, he works with leading global organisations across mainland Europe to develop workplace programmes attuned to local cultural and legislative variations.

[FPO] Alex Couture

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FAQ

01

Where is Fish & Richardson’s Munich office located?

Fish & Richardson’s Munich office is located in Munich, Germany, on the top floor of Highlight Towers.

02

What was the main design challenge for Fish & Richardson’s Munich office?

The main challenge was creating a flexible, collaborative legal workplace within a floorplate more than 50% narrower than typical commercial offices while preserving privacy for legal work.

03

How does the office support modern legal work?

The office combines cellular offices with shared offices, open-plan assistant areas, collaboration zones, phone and video rooms, and hospitality-style client spaces.

04

How does the design support employee wellbeing?

The design introduces light, warm materials, acoustic textures, intuitive circulation, and daylight access from both sides, alongside a wellness room with a daybed and bookcase for staff.

05

How many people does Fish & Richardson’s Munich office support?

The office supports nearly 40 people working flexibly on one floor.

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Related Expertise

Professional Services Workplace

Fish & Richardson’s Munich office balances privacy, flexibility, and wellbeing. Gensler’s open, welcoming design reflects their culture and redefines the modern law firm experience.

The tower’s narrow floorplate reinforced conventional offices and corridors, prompting a reimagining of collaborative and social spaces within the workplace.

Why This Matters

By rethinking a conventional legal office, Gensler created a warm, adaptable workplace that seamlessly integrates privacy, collaboration, wellbeing, and intuitive spatial experiences.

Through an iterative design process, Gensler tested multiple planning strategies to create a workplace balancing privacy, collaboration, and an exceptional user experience.

Fish & Richardson’s Munich office turns a constrained tower floorplate into a flexible legal workplace that supports focus, connection, and wellbeing.

What Changed Because of This