Corporate Realty Associates

This site initially arose out of my passion for research regarding the evolution of the workplace and its impact on my commercial real estate clients. As a former lawyer, I have a special interest in law firms that has evolved into an obsession with how the legal industry is evolving – especially in the area of client service. -Anita Turner

Website: https://www.anitainsights.com/
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Anita Turner

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It’s 6:45 on a Monday night.  I am in our family kitchen checking the lasagna,  frantically tossing salads and slicing garlic bread.  The table in our dining room has been extended with a card table at one end and a folding table perpendicular to one side.  Table cloths are in place; cloth napkins and forks are at every one of the 24 seats and spare napkins and forks are stacked for any surprise guests. The…
I recently read a blog post about the importance of client trust to business development and it really resonated with me.  Written by Tara Weintritt at the Wicker Park Group, I encourage you to take two minutes to go here and read it. I thought about what Weintritt had to say in the context of my real estate and legal careers. “We can do anything… for revenue.” When I started working at JLL 24 years…
I just finished The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America’s Leading Design Firm at the recommendation of Dave Gray.  (See more of his recommendations here.  You cannot go wrong with any of his suggestions.) While written in 2001, this book is still very relevant today.  As evidence, in the book, the authors discuss how they would improve the check-in and departure process at airports.  Virtually every recommendation they made in 2001…
I have been doing a lot of reading lately on the need for law firms to refocus their strategy on the client.  This refocus includes everything from better understanding the client and the client’s business to providing an exceptional client experience.  For those who are as interested in this subject as me[i], here are some of the books I have found most valuable along with some small lessons from each. Why do law…
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A couple months ago, I had the opportunity to do a quick tour of Shipt’s Birmingham headquarters with its new CEO, Kelly Caruso, and her team. Kelly is a Leadership Birmingham classmate of mine and fellow Minnesotan. She took the reigns of Shipt shortly after Target acquired the company and then willingly relocated down south to keep Shipt’s HQ in the Ham.   Thankfully, she is quite literally warming to Alabama and we are all thrilled…
Yesterday, on  the way from work to a holiday event, I got in a car accident.  Everyone involved was unhurt and my car suffered blessedly minimal damage such that I could drive away after all of the accident reporting was complete. I was uncharacteristically calm throughout the whole ordeal.  If anything, I was absolutely overcome with gratitude that everyone was OK and this accident was not going to send my family into a financial or…
A few years ago, law firm Paul Hastings re-titled their administrative assistants to “client service assistants.”  Why? To emphasize that the job of all Paul Hastings employees is ultimately to serve the clients. I am not a Paul Hastings client, so I can’t tell you whether this translated to better client service, but I applaud the approach.  It is straight out of the Zappos’ playbook created by its founder Tony Hsieh, and Zappos gets service…
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What does the headquarters of a hip and growing women’s wear retailer look like? Not surprisingly, it looks pretty inviting. And from me, a self-professed lover of hospitable and welcoming office spaces, this is the ultimate compliment.  Who wouldn’t want their office to “invite” employees in, rather than demand their presence? Corey Gaffer Photography Warm and Soulful During a visit to Minneapolis last month, I toured the offices of Evereve and I didn’t want to…
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It is said that you cannot put lipstick on a pig, but OTJ Architects proves that you can transform a below grade common area into valuable and attractive space with good design. The Foundry OTJ took what was effectively basement space in the beautiful brick Foundry Building in Georgetown and made it a selling point for the building owner.  How? By utilizing good design to build an amenity complex. OTJ added hardwood floors, a live-edge…
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Can a law firm with 14 offices around the United States and Europe consolidate all of its shared services operations to one location, and in the process save money and improve productivity? The answer is “yes” if you ask Fish & Richardson. The Situation About four years ago, Fish & Richardson’s Chief Operating Officer, Rick Anderson, started exploring the possibility of a shared services “hub.”  It was Anderson’s belief that having all of…