Simmons & Simmons

Addleshaw Goddard, Simmons & Simmons, Bird & Bird and Womble Bond Dickinson have joined the ranks of firms to announce new measures aimed at protecting themselves in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Addleshaws is set to place some of its paralegals onto the U.K. government's furlough scheme, joining several others in the decision to move staff onto the programme.

The firm said in a statement on Thursday that it will be "taking advantage of the government's job retention scheme over the coming weeks where it is sensible to do so and is currently consulting with its TST (transaction services team) paralegals."

Simmons, meanwhile, is also looking to furlough some staff "whose roles are directly impacted by remote working", a spokesperson confirmed on Thursday.

The firm is delaying partner distributions and deferring decisions relating to staff pay and bonuses until later in the year, the firm added in a statement on Thursday. The measures affect the firm's global partnership, a spokesperson confirmed.

The firm said that the coronavirus pandemic is "a global crisis of unprecedented scale with a significant human and economic impact", adding that the firm is "focused on supporting our people".

Womble Bond Dickinson has also placed some U.K. staff on furlough leave and has also deferred partner distributions.

"Like all businesses around the globe, the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting our firm," the firm's U.K. managing partner Jonathan Blair said in a statement. "In order to protect our business and job security in these extremely uncertain times, we have asked some colleagues to go onto furlough leave and will be topping up salaries to 100% in April."

"These are difficult decisions for any business to adopt and we are regularly reviewing our position," he added.

Last month, the firm said in a statement to The American Lawyer that it would be temporarily cutting pay across its U.S. offices, as well as furloughing or laying off employees.

Meanwhile Bird & Bird will withhold a portion of its global partners' profits in the next quarter. A percentage of those profits will be transferred to a reserve to sustain the business as it takes a financial hit during the pandemic.

A spokesperson for the firm said in a statement: "Like many other firms, our management team is exploring a variety of contingency options to ensure we are in a position to look after our people during this crisis and that after it we are in as strong a position as now to serve our clients."

Other firms to have implemented similar measures include Slaughter and May, which confirmed Thursday it has suspended partner pay for an indefinite period. Several firms have also taken steps to furlough staff, such as DLA Piper, Eversheds Sutherland, Taylor Wessing and Pinsent Masons.

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