First look inside Hugh James’ new office at Two Central Square

Top 100 UK full-service law firm, Hugh James has completed its move to new state-of-the-art offices at Two Central Square Cardiff, a key strand of its growth strategy to take the firm into the top 50 in the UK by 2021.

The firm has released photos of its 100,000 sq ft office that will house the firm’s 700 staff.

Occupying six floors, the new cutting-edge office has been designed with sustainability and collaborative working in mind.

The impressive office is equipped with an outside terrace area, dedicated client floor, a function / hospitality area for events and seminars as well as meeting rooms.

Key features include a client floor made up of a hospitality lounge for visitors, 12 meeting rooms, a 120-capacity function room for Hugh James to host its own hospitality events and seminars as well as a subsidised café which will provide high quality food and drink throughout the day to staff and guests.

To encourage collaborative working, there is a central, internal staircase that runs throughout the building and provides the quickest, greenest and healthiest method of travelling between floors.

The floors have all been designed to accommodate open plan working but there are also designated quiet areas, space for confidential client calls, collaborative working and areas for internal meetings.

The office has achieved a BREEAM excellent rating.

Staff have been moving into the building in stages throughout October.

The move to Central Square is a milestone for Hugh James in its 58-year history, and forms part of the firm’s ambitious growth plan.

In addition to its Cardiff office move, Hugh James recently relocated its London office to a 3,696 sq ft office space at 99 Gresham Street in London, following significant growth in the capital.

Matthew Tossell, senior partner at Hugh James, said: “The move has been highly anticipated by our staff and clients. It’s such a huge milestone for the firm. Working within a modern, cutting-edge environment is better suited to our business and will facilitate better cross-department working, improve efficiency and reflect our positioning.

“At Two Central Square, we have provided everything necessary to ensure our staff can adopt the best working practices. Not only is the office an impressive space, the close proximity to Cardiff Central train station makes it an ideal location for our clients and staff and will also help us to support our London office growth.

“We’re absolutely delighted with the finished result. We wanted to create a best in class working environment that our current staff could be proud of and one in which potential employees would want to join and Two Central Square has certainly achieved that.”