A law firm’s offices have always been more than a workplace, with firms using prestigious addresses, tony art collections and sweeping views to send an unmistakable message to clients and recruits: Trust your problems, or your career, to us.

Those days will return, hopefully, sooner rather than later. For now, the trappings of physical office space—aside from technological infrastructure—don’t mean a whole lot. No one is there. No one is coming to visit. But the firms are still paying for it.