Biglaw

Biglaw Office Shut Down After COVID Outbreak

Two COVID outbreaks, technically.

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The process of reopening Biglaw offices is bound to be a slow one filled with many stops and starts. Just ask Squire Patton Boggs. The international law firm had to shut down its Manchester office after lawyers tested positive for COVID-19.

According to RollOnFriday, the office was “evacuated after two separate outbreaks of Covid.” Apparently there were two separate attorneys who took COVID tests over the weekend, and were at the office when they got the positive results. Which led to closing the office ASAP:

“Neither individual experienced symptoms while in the office”, emphasised a spokesperson for SPB, adding that the lawyers have not returned to the office while they self-isolate.

The results let to the immediate closure of the office on Monday “out of an abundance of caution” and a deep clean. It re-opened on Wednesday.

Though the office is now reopened, according to a spokesperson it “remains, as it was previously, at limited capacity,” and employees at the office are “doing so on a managed, voluntary basis and in accordance with the health and safety protocols put in place by the firm.”

One of the attorneys who tested positive was reportedly working on a corporate deal when the test result came in. The entire team was immediately sent home, and, as RollOnFriday notes, they had to depend on the kindness of another Biglaw firm to get everything done:

An insider claimed the associates “had to rely on another law firm”, DLA Piper, “to help run the rest of the deal for them”, which “meant a couple of all nighters for the DLAP bods”. Clearly the Blitz Spirit is alive and well, brings a tear to the eye so it does.

We’d like to believe this is the last hiccup in the re-opening of Biglaw, but, it probably won’t be.

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headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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