To contribute towards the drive to curb the spread of the novel Coronavirus, also known as Covid-19 outbreak, India’s top Law Firms have started to allow their employees to work from home.
J Sagar Associates (JSA) and Trilegal have completely moved to a work from home policy starting this week.
All JSA offices will remain closed from Tuesday March 17 till further notice. However, in the occurrence of some exceptional circumstances, an Equity Partner who would be requiring access to the office for self or a team member may do so for as short a duration as possible.
"JSA has taken an important step in closing ours offices from tomorrow till further notice to ensure the safety of all working with JSA and in the interest of the community at large. Work will, however, continue with attorneys working from home and from courts where necessary" said Joint Managing Partners Amit Kapur and Vivek Chandy in a statement.
JSA's tech team will also be assisting the lawyers to make sure that facilities to work remotely are functional during this time.
"All employees would be working from home starting today, and the technology to support the same is in place." (Trilegal Press Statement)
Khaitan & Co has given the option to work from home with an immediate implementation to all of its employees across. The firm's offices continue to remain open. This option of work from home will stay in effect until March 31, 2020 or when further advice is given in this regard.
“For us, the safety, security and well-being of our members has always been our priority. The culture and ethos of our firm is that of a close-knit family, that comes even closer and supports each other in times of crises. So, while we have adequate systems in place to ensure business continuity while we allow work from home in this unprecedented situation, we will do nothing that will compromise the safety and security of our members or their families.” stated Amar Sinhji, Executive Director, Khaitan & Co.
Veritas Legal is also moving to work from home model from today March 17, 2020.
“Social distancing is a key preventive measure during this crisis. We believe we owe it to our stakeholders to act responsibly. We, at Veritas Legal, are moving to a “work from home model” from March 17, 2020. We have also put into place what we find to be a comprehensive business continuity plan” stated Abhijit Joshi, Managing Partner, Veritas Legal.
AZB & Partners, Delhi office has also announced the implementation of 'work from home' policy for every personnel till March 21 while AZB's Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore offices will move to 'work from home' from March 18 for a week.
Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas is also implementing "work from home" policy effective March 17, 2020.
“In the interest of safety, we have moved to work from home from tomorrow. We are geared up to support our clients. We are not closed. Only working remotely." statedCyril Shroff, Managing Partner, CAM.
Chandhiok & Mahajan is working virtually from yesterday (March 16, 2020) while the Bangalore office has been working from home since March 2, 2020.
“We have upgraded and tested our infrastructure to have full ‘work from home’ capabilities, including for our interns. The litigation and insolvency teams are the only ones - at present - that are permitted limited access to our offices. Last week, we participated in two arbitration hearings over conference calls, and we are very grateful to the arbitrators and opposing counsel for acceding to our requests. The health and safety of our professionals, clients, their respective families and communities is paramount for us,” as told by Karan Chandhiok, Managing Partner, Chandiok & Mahajan.
Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co is getting ready to move in this direction and allow all of its employees to work from home.
“We have closely assessed our IT and infrastructural readiness and are prepared for a Work From Home scenario. Multiple exercises are planned to stress-test the robustness and effectiveness of our system, so that we face minimal disruption to our client service delivery once we roll this out, shortly” said Shweta Shroff Chopra, Partner, SAM.
Author – Devansh Dev
