From Casual Dress to Casual Building
The Daily Journal, June 29, 1999

By Craig Anderson
Daily Journal Staff Writer

First it was casual Fridays. Then many law firms, especially those with clients in the hip high-tech world, allowed attorneys to dress down every day.
And now at least one law firm that caters to Silicon Valley startup companies has taken it one step further with "casual building."

Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian, a 4-year-old Menlo Park firm with a focus on corporate securities and intellectual property work, has expanded its operations this month into a converted warehouse down the street from its other office on Constitution Drive east of Highway 101. The building, which most recently served as a telephone book distribution center, is now home to half of the firm's attorneys and staff.
"It was actually part of our original vision to have a warehouse," said partner and cofounder Steve Franklin. "We were looking for a South of Market look," he said, referring to the office spaces found in San Francisco's "Multimedia Gulch."

The firm has made no effort to make the building look more like a traditional law office. Instead, the designers have maintained the warehouse's high ceilings, left air conditioning ducts exposed and installed skylights in the lunchroom.

They have even put a "sandbox" in the warehouse that is similar to one in their more traditional building. Gary Wohl, the firm's executive director, said the sandbox's purpose is largely as a utilitarian design solution for areas that are difficult to dust.