International firm Dentons has reopened its London office for a limited number of staff, having disabled desk phones, banned movement between floors and set-up a ‘track and trace’ system. 

Dentons will allow employees to return to its office in Farringdon for ‘mental health, isolation or other wellbeing reasons’. Only 25% of the building will be occupied and there will be no movement between floors, the firm said. Anyone vulnerable to coronavirus or living with people who are vulnerable will not be allowed to return.

The firm has also set up an on-site ‘track and trace’ system where staff will be required to sign in and out of the building. Anyone who has been into the office who then develops symptoms, or is close to someone that has, must notify the HR department which will ascertain if anyone else was on the same floor at the same time and if so request them to self-isolate.

Dentons’ other UK offices will reopen in similar fashion over the coming weeks.

Lisa Sewell, UK & Middle East managing director at Dentons, said: ‘While our offices are infection free we can never fully eradicate the risk – people will be travelling into the office using different forms of transport and you can never be 100% certain about these things. Everyone will have their own views about the level of risk they are willing to take, so all we are doing is giving people a choice. There is absolutely no need or pressure for people to work from the office at this stage.’

She added that remote working is likely to feature ‘much more heavily for everyone’ once normal working conditions resume.