Iveta Bales, who is expecting a baby in January, has her feet up in the lounge next door, working on her laptop. Beyond the kitchen and lounge, in the interior garden with a white picket fence, Kirsty McLeod and Juliette Ford get down to work.

This is the new work place for lawyers in two longstanding firms in Canberra, who believe their move into the digital era will be a trendsetter for the ACT legal fraternity. Family law specialist Farrar Gesini Dunn shares with Certus Law a reception area, kitchen, lounge and interior garden, which has a rope swing, yellow watering can, potted palms and green spread of artificial lawn.

Forget the frosted-glass offices and paper file archives. The new, clear-glass break-out rooms - named The Rake Room, The Silk Room, The Practice Room, Matlock, Boston and JAG (The Good Wife didn't make the cut, not in this family law practice) - are much friendlier.

Baby boomers among the 11 directors of the two firms have found the change challenging. The Gen Ys think it's awesome. They planned the move for more than a year, consulting other professionals on activity-based work models and hired extra staff, who worked around the clock scanning legal documents to go online.

To meet principal partners you don't send a legal secretary into a board room. Wait around long enough in the kitchen and you meet Jim Dunn. His business card says he's Darth Varder. Mr Farrar's card says he's the Guru. The titles are designed to be friendly conversation starters.

Instead of paper briefs tied with red-ribbon, filing cabinets, phones or designated offices, lawyers walk around with iPads. They slip into small rooms for extended phone calls and attend court without armfuls of binders.

"The scary bit for me was moving from paper to digital," Mr Farrar, who is approaching 40 years in law, says.

For the first 38 he worked with paper files and a dictaphone. He began typing only in recent years.

"All the graduates come with keyboard skills," Mr Farrar said. "Technology doesn't faze them. Working with younger people keeps you younger in your own mind. I'm 63 and like to think I can still have a one-on-one conversation with them."

Farrar Gesini Dunn director Juliette Ford (Wonder Woman) says the new model recognises how 21st century people work and communicate through emails rather than writing letters.

"In the world of legal tradition, many documents may still be, at the end of the day, printed off as a formal contract, or as a set of orders that need to be signed or agreement reached between the parties. That may be the end point," Ms Ford said.

Operating without all the paraphernalia lawyers once surrounded themselves with created less stress at work and a more client-focussed business.

And lawyers no longer used a trolley full of books and binders to intimidate rivals in court, Ms Ford said.

"I would say that the less you bring into court, with an iPad under your arm, and you sit at the bar table with everything at your fingertips, where you are able to pull up any document compared to the person scurrying around looking for that piece of paper, sifting through their files for a file note, can be the level of intimidation just as well as trawling in with 15 trolleys of law books. It is actually quite interesting how that can play out."