Choosing a workspace isn’t the same for a startup billing by project as it is for a law firm receiving clients every week. When your business revolves around confidentiality, client-facing image, and teams that grow or shrink depending on your project pipeline, the question stops being “coworking or office?” and becomes something far more specific: what type of flexible office space actually fits a law firm, a consultancy, or a financial firm?
In this article, we cover the three most common options, coworking, private office, and flexible corporate office, and which professional profile gets the most out of each.
Why Professional Services Need to Think About Space Differently
Law firms, consultancies, and financial firms share three needs that other businesses don’t always have:
- Real confidentiality, not just perceived: client conversations, contracts, financial data, or information subject to industry regulation.
- Consistent brand image, because your address is part of your value proposition to clients, especially in sectors where trust is built partly through physical environment.
- Variable team structures, since the number of people working on a project changes with workload, without needing to relocate offices every time.
With that in mind, it’s worth breaking down each flexible office space option on its own.
Coworking: Flexibility and Networking, with Caveats
Shared-desk coworking delivers exactly what its name promises: maximum flexibility, controlled costs, and the chance to build contacts with other professionals at the center. For a solo lawyer, an independent advisor, or a consultant because they work on-site with clients, this type of flexible office space can be enough.
The key caveat is confidentiality. A shared-area desk isn’t the place for a sensitive client call, or for leaving documents in view. That’s why professional firms that choose coworking as their flexible office space typically combine it with phone booths and private meeting rooms bookable by the hour, so day-to-day work happens in the shared space, while sensitive moments move to a closed room.
Private Office in a Business Center: The Balanced Flexible Office Space
For most law firms, boutique consultancies, and financial advisories, a private office within a business center tends to be the flexible office space that best fits the numbers. It combines the best of both worlds: a closed, exclusive space that can be personalized with the firm’s branding, inside a building that includes reception, meeting rooms, cleaning, security, and utilities in a single monthly fee.
The concrete advantages for this type of business:
- Real privacy for calls, team meetings, and handling sensitive information, without depending on the availability of a shared room.
- A professional client-facing image equal to, or better than, owning your own office, with a staffed reception and well-kept common areas.
- Scalability without relocating: if the team grows due to new cases or clients, desks expand within the same center, with no upfront investment or renegotiating a traditional lease.
- A registered business address in a prime location, which carries real weight in sectors where the address itself signals solidity to clients and institutions.
This format is also what you’ll find in executive offices (from 2 desks, designed for professionals and representative offices) and private offices (4 to 18 desks, for growing teams) at business centers like First Workplaces.
Flexible Corporate Office: When the Team Needs More Space and Customization
When a consultancy or financial firm already has an established team, or several departments working at the same center, the natural next step is a fully customized corporate office. Here, layout design (open space, private offices, private meeting rooms), brand identity applied to the space, and enterprise-grade technology infrastructure — symmetrical fiber, private network, and 24/7 security, all come into play.
It’s the right option for headquarters, international companies setting up in Spain, or large consultancies that need their flexible office space to reflect their corporate culture without taking on the construction and investment of a traditional owned or leased office.
Quick Comparison of Flexible Office Space Options
| Coworking | Private Office | Corporate Flexible Office | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Confidentiality | Medium (requires private rooms for key moments) | High | High |
| Brand image | Shared with the center | Own, within a prime building | Fully customized |
| Flexibility to grow | Very high | High | High, with longer adaptation timelines |
| Initial cost | Low | No upfront investment | No upfront investment, fee scaled to size |
| Ideal profile | Independent professional, very small and mobile teams | Law firms, boutique consultancies, financial advisories | Large consultancies, corporate HQs, international offices |
According to the latest flexible office space study by JLL and ProWorkSpaces, law firms and consultancies are already a structural part of demand in Spain’s flex sector, and financial firms are becoming an increasingly relevant client profile.
What Flexible Office Space Fits Best for Each Profile?
Lawyers and law firms: attorney-client confidentiality isn’t negotiable, so a private office is, in most cases, the natural flexible office space choice, paired with bookable meeting rooms.
Consultancies: it all depends on team size and how much time they spend in the office versus with clients. Boutique consultancies or project teams fit well in a private office; consultancies with a stable headcount and multiple departments usually already need a custom corporate office.
Financial firms and advisories: handling sensitive data and sector regulation make privacy nearly a requirement, not a preference. A private office with executive meeting rooms for clients and investors tends to be the most balanced format between cost, image, and compliance.
How First Workplaces Solves This
At First Workplaces, the journey from executive office to corporate office can happen within the same center without changing address or renegotiating from scratch. Our offering covers all three needs in this article:
- Executive offices from 2 desks, ideal for professionals, freelancers, and representative offices.
- Private offices from 4 to 18 desks, designed for growing teams.
- Custom corporate offices for teams of up to 300 desks, with full corporate image customization.
- Coworking and meeting or conference rooms to complement any of the formats above when occasional flexibility is needed.
All of this in prime locations across Madrid (Castellana, AZCA, Plaza de Castilla, and more), Barcelona, and Malaga, with utilities, cleaning, 24/7 security, and symmetrical fiber connectivity included in a single fee, no upfront investment, and contracts that adapt to your business’s real pace.
If your law firm, consultancy, or financial firm is considering a change of space, the most practical next step is to schedule a visit and compare how each of these formats plays out day to day for your team.
www.firstworkplaces.com
info@firstworkplaces.com
+34 900 900 410
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