Do Law Offices Need More Places to Talk?

The growth of voice-based work also raises an interesting question for the legal workplace.

Do firms have enough places for people to talk without disrupting everyone around them?

Historically, many law offices have relied heavily on enclosed private offices, which can naturally provide places for calls and conversations. But legal workplaces are changing. Some firms are reducing individual office sizes, introducing shared or unassigned spaces, creating more collaborative environments and using real estate differently.

At the same time, the number of reasons an individual might need to speak during the workday is increasing.

That may create a new role for small enclosed focus rooms, phone rooms and acoustic booths.

These spaces should not be seen as the automatic answer for every law office, nor should the workplace simply be filled with booths because a new technology has arrived.

The more useful question is whether the workplace provides enough choice.

A lawyer with an appropriately enclosed private office may need nothing additional. Someone working in a shared environment may benefit from quick access to a small enclosed space for a virtual meeting, confidential call or extended voice interaction with an AI tool.

In that context, products such as acoustic booths can become less about creating a novelty "phone booth" and more about providing acoustic infrastructure for increasingly verbal work.

The principle remains the same: Start with the work, not the product.

Details Matter: Start With the Door

Sometimes a surprisingly small detail can compromise an otherwise well-designed room.

The door is a perfect example.

A firm can invest in high-performing walls and glazing, but if there are significant gaps around or beneath the door, conversations may still be heard from the corridor.

Where greater speech privacy is required, details such as door construction, perimeter seals, thresholds and surrounding conditions should be considered as part of the complete acoustic strategy. The same principle applies to ceilings, electrical outlets, wall penetrations and mechanical systems.

Acoustic performance is only as strong as its weakest path.

Looking at the acoustic rating of one product does not necessarily tell you how the completed room will perform.

The wall might perform exceptionally well. The glass might be appropriately specified. But if sound is travelling around the door, above the ceiling or through another opening, the experience can still fall short.

Glass Doesn't Have to Mean Giving Up Privacy

Glass has become an important element in contemporary legal workplace design.

It allows natural light to penetrate deeper into the workplace, creates visual connection and can make enclosed offices and meeting spaces feel more open.

But visual privacy and acoustic privacy are two different things.

When sensitive conversations regularly occur behind glass walls, the acoustic characteristics of the glazing, framing, doors and surrounding construction should all be evaluated together.

The answer does not have to be choosing between openness and privacy. With proper planning, firms can often create environments that provide both.

The important point is that privacy should be intentional. It should not be assumed simply because there is a wall between two spaces.

Sound Masking: What It Does and What It Doesn't Do

Sound masking is another tool that can contribute to a better acoustic environment, and it is frequently misunderstood.

Sound masking does not "cancel" conversations. Instead, a professionally designed system introduces a controlled level of background sound that helps reduce how intelligible surrounding speech is.

Think about the difference between overhearing a conversation in a silent library and hearing the same conversation in a restaurant with a consistent level of background sound. The conversation has not disappeared, but it may become considerably less noticeable.

This is also relevant to the issue of a workplace becoming too quiet.

A certain level of consistent ambient sound can help a workplace feel comfortable while making individual conversations less prominent.

Sound masking can therefore be useful in open work areas and other shared environments, particularly when it is used alongside good planning, appropriate absorption and physical separation.

It should not, however, be expected to correct a poorly constructed confidential room.

Once again, acoustics work best as a system.

Hybrid Work Has Already Changed the Sound of the Office

AI may add another layer of speech to the workplace, but it is not the first technology to do so.

The office already sounds different than it did several years ago.

People participate in Teams and Zoom meetings throughout the day. Client consultations happen virtually. Hybrid meetings place some participants in the room and others on-screen. Employees spend more time speaking at their desks than they once did.

One employee may be actively collaborating on a video call while the person beside them is reviewing a complex document requiring intense concentration.

Neither employee is working incorrectly.

The environment simply needs to support two very different activities.

Phone rooms, focus rooms, enclosed meeting spaces, private offices and appropriately positioned collaboration zones can give people more choice about where different types of work happen.

The objective is not to eliminate conversation. It is to give conversation the right place to happen.

As voice AI develops, this principle becomes even more important.

Rather than continually asking people to behave more quietly, firms should ask whether the workplace provides the right environments for the increasingly diverse activities people are expected to perform.

Start With an Acoustic Walkthrough

One of the easiest ways to begin evaluating acoustics costs nothing.

Walk through the office during a normal workday and really listen.

1. Outside a meeting room

Can you understand the conversation taking place inside?

2. At a workstation near a collaborative area

Are you hearing general workplace activity, or can you clearly follow individual conversations?

3. In reception or client areas

Does sound feel controlled, or does every conversation seem to travel?

4. In focus areas

Does the space feel calm, or so silent that every small sound becomes noticeable?

5. In private offices

Does closing the door create meaningful separation from the activity outside?

Then ask employees about their experience. Where do they go when they need to concentrate? Where do they take sensitive calls? Are there rooms they avoid for confidential conversations? Are certain spaces consistently too loud? Are there areas where people feel uncomfortable speaking because the environment is too quiet?

And looking ahead, consider one more question:

If employees increasingly speak to AI tools, where would you want those conversations to happen?

Patterns will begin to emerge.

This type of walkthrough helps distinguish between a general complaint that an office is "too noisy" and a specific acoustic problem that can actually be addressed.

That distinction matters because the solution to reverberation is different from the solution to sound transfer. The solution to poor speech privacy is different from the solution to distracting open-office conversations. And the solution to an environment that is uncomfortably silent may involve adding appropriate background sound rather than removing more of it.

A Practical Tool for Understanding Reverberation

For firms interested in better understanding reverberation, technology can provide a useful introduction.

BuzziSpace offers a free RT60 app for iPhone that measures reverberation time in small to medium-sized rooms. Users can take a basic measurement of a room and simulate how introducing various BuzziSpace acoustic products could affect reverberation time.

It is not a substitute for professional acoustic testing when confidentiality or technical performance needs to be verified. But it is an interesting way to experience just how differently sound behaves from one room to another.

Try measuring a conference room with substantial glass and hard finishes. Then compare it with a room containing carpet, acoustic ceiling material, upholstered furniture and other absorptive elements.

The difference may be significant.

More importantly, the exercise creates a tangible connection between the materials we see and the acoustic environment we experience.

What Can Firms Do Today?

If an office is already occupied, improving acoustics does not automatically require a major renovation.

The first step is to identify the actual problem.

Consider:

• Is sound lingering too long within a room?
• Are conversations travelling between enclosed spaces?
• Are employees distracted by understandable speech?
• Are there enough places for phone and video calls?
• Is a collaborative area positioned beside concentration-heavy work?
• Does a particular meeting room lack appropriate privacy?
• Are employees reluctant to use certain spaces because they are too noisy?
• Has sound been controlled so aggressively that another area feels unnaturally quiet?
• Are people changing their behaviour because of the acoustic environment?
• If voice-based AI use increases, does the workplace have appropriate places for those conversations?

Once the problem is understood, possible responses may include:

• Adding absorptive wall, ceiling or furniture elements
• Introducing acoustic dividers or screening
• Improving door seals or other gaps
• Reviewing partition and ceiling conditions
• Reconsidering how spaces are assigned or used
• Adding enclosed phone, focus or meeting spaces
• Evaluating acoustic booths where they support the way people work
• Introducing sound masking where appropriate
• Repositioning collaborative activities
• Testing rooms where greater speech privacy is required
• Reviewing whether background sound levels are appropriate for how a space is being used

Sometimes the solution is architectural. Sometimes it is furniture. Sometimes it is technology. Sometimes it is space planning. And sometimes it is simply using the existing workplace differently.

The important point is to diagnose before prescribing.

Design for the Work That Is Coming

For firms planning a new office or significant renovation, the most important advice may be the simplest:

Have the acoustic conversation early.

Determine which spaces need true speech privacy. Identify where concentration-heavy work will occur. Understand where collaboration and social interaction will happen. Think about phone calls, video meetings and hybrid work.

But do not design solely around the way the firm works today.

Consider how technology may change behaviour over the life of the workplace.

If voice becomes a more common way of interacting with AI, how might that affect the number of conversations taking place during the workday? If lawyers spend less time typing commands and more time speaking them, what does that mean for shared environments? Where will people go when they need to have a ten-minute spoken interaction without distracting colleagues?

No one can predict exactly how quickly these behaviours will change.

But good workplace strategy does not require perfect prediction.

It requires creating enough flexibility for the environment to adapt.

Consider how ceilings, walls, doors, glazing and mechanical systems work together. Think about the desired level of ambient sound, not simply the amount of sound that needs to be removed. Provide a range of spaces that support different levels of interaction and concentration.

Solving these questions on a floor plan is considerably easier than discovering them after everyone has moved in.

The Sound of the Next Law Office

Clients may never know the acoustic rating of a wall. Employees may never know why a particular ceiling product was selected. Visitors may never notice that an absorptive material has been incorporated into the design. They may never think about the sound masking system operating quietly in the background.

But people notice the experience those decisions create.

A client notices whether a conversation feels private. An employee notices whether they can concentrate. A lawyer notices whether closing the door creates meaningful separation from the activity outside. A team notices whether collaboration feels energetic without becoming disruptive.

And increasingly, people may notice whether the workplace allows them to use new tools and new ways of working without negatively affecting everyone around them.

That is what successful acoustic design provides.

Not silence. Balance.

Enough privacy for sensitive conversations. Enough acoustic control for focused work. Enough background sound for people to feel comfortable. Enough choice for collaboration, virtual meetings and increasingly verbal interactions with technology.

The legal workplace is changing, and its acoustic requirements will change with it.

The question for firms is no longer simply, "Can people hear us?"

It is, "Have we designed the workplace for everything people are going to need to say?"

With three decades of experience in the industry, Dave Turner's successful track record as a corporate leader demonstrates the ability to maintain long term, mutually beneficial relationships with CTI's clients. Dave has a broad background as a consulting professional and senior-level executive on personal and organizational development, strategic planning, and change implementation at CTI.

Dave is happy to answer any questions you may have about the services or products offered by CTI Working Environments. t: 905.362.2785  I  e: dturner@ctiwe.com