Magic circle firm Linklaters has cancelled its annual partner meeting at the end of April because of coronavirus fears. It today announced plans to hold a ‘virtual meeting’ in its place.

A spokesperson for the firm said: ‘We have cancelled our annual partner meeting in Berlin and instead this will be held as a virtual meeting for the partners. We have invested in a suite of technology tools to help our people work from home and are encouraging them to test these if we need to implement a remote working policy.’

The firm added that is has been responding to the outbreak for over five weeks in its Asia offices, with teams ‘working from home or in split team fashion to reduce the number of people in the office at any one time and avoid peak commuting hours. We are therefore well-prepared and ready to respond to any disruption that may occur to other offices’.

Meanwhile, it has been reported that an employee at big four accountancy firm Deloitte has tested positive for Covid-19, prompting the evacuation of one floor of Deloitte’s office. It is believed that the employee contracted the virus during a personal trip to Asia.

On Monday, a global property conference in Cannes was postponed until June after major firms dropped out. 

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