Parisians are beginning to go to work as the city slowly reopens. Photo: Shutterstock.com

At one elite French firm, the cafeteria area is closed and lunching in it is prohibited. At a Big Law office, brown bags in the conference room are fine as long as their owners observe social distancing.

A week after France lifted two months of strict lockdown measures to combat COVID-19, law firms in Paris are slowly starting to bring their offices back to life.

The ways the firms are reopening, or not, vary widely, but managing partners say they are following two basic principles: heeding French government guidance and leaving the decision to return to the office up to the individual.

For this first phase of the relaxation of restrictions, which lasts until June 2, the government is still encouraging remote working whenever possible. This is especially true in the Paris area, which the government still considers a region at risk for spread of the COVID-19.

"We plan to reopen after three weeks of no increase in new cases in the community," Patrick Tardivy, a partner at Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe and head of the firm's Paris office, told Law.com International in an email. "At that time, the return will be voluntary. We believe this is the most responsible approach for the community, our clients and our people."

A representative for another Big Law firm said the firm's Paris team "continues to work remotely and our clients are continuing to receive full support.

"Like every firm, we will carefully consider when and how our people can return to the office safely, and we will follow the government's guidance," the representative said.

Offices that have reopened are doing so in close and continuing consultation with their staffs, partners said.

Jeantet, a top-tier French firm with 120 lawyers in Paris, produced an 11-page guidebook to reopening its offices, a joint effort based on a firmwide poll and bringing in professional, administrative and communications staff members, the firm said.

"The discussions were very animated," said Catherine Saint Geniest, co-managing partner of Jeantet.

"People liked working from home, but some lawyers really wanted to come back one or two days per week, just to make a change or to be able to work quietly while the children are still out of school. The question became how to provide a short-term solution that made everyone feel comfortable," she said.

Jeantet's guidelines include instructions for how many people could come back to work (no more than 70 people at any time), how that would be determined (by online sign-up), and how they should arrive (by car, bike or foot, avoiding public transportation if at all possible).

Elevator access is restricted to two mask-wearing people at a time, and meetings are limited to four socially distanced people. Use of the cafeteria area is prohibited, as is eating in the office. Handwashing is required before touching any shared equipment.

At Fieldfisher in Paris, a task force that includes four of the office's 10 partners is in charge of new protocols, such as one-way corridors, tape on the floor to mark social distancing, unplugging the office refrigerator and locking away the coffee cups.

Most lawyers are still working from home, but the ones who have come back even for a few days a week are "delighted," said Christopher Mesnooh, an M&A partner.

"My two associates and I brought our lunches into the conference room and had our first real catch-up in two months," he said. "There's a conviviality that we all missed. It's not the way it was, and probably won't be for some time. But things are becoming unthawed."