DLA Piper is offering its international workforce options to reduce hours and pay amid the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The global firm is allowing all lawyers and staff across its non-U.S. operations to apply for two voluntary flexible working schemes, as part of which they can either ask to temporarily cut or change their standard working hours or take a sabbatical.

The scheme is a result of an emotional wellbeing survey that was sent to the DLA workforce to ask how people are coping with life under lockdown.

The firm's global co-CEO Simon Levine, who is based in the firm's London office, said that the impact of having a diminished workload yet still being asked to work from home was taking its toll on some people.

"One of the things that's come back from the first survey is something that I'd not necessarily thought about at first," said Levine. "A lot of our people have responded to say that [they] would like some flexibility in [their] working week.

"A number of people have said, 'We're [working from] home but we're not being particularly productive because the work just isn't there', and that in itself is causing some anxiety — they say, 'We're locked in front of our screens and can't work on everything we want to be working on, but we can't really not work either."

The scheme will last until September initially, Levine said, and will then be reviewed. He added that all requests for alterations in working patterns will be decided on an individual basis, and that the only constraint is if a request would affect client service or a wider team.

"A few people have asked if they can do charity work, some people want to take a week off or even take a sabbatical. If they're not going to be fully productive, they may as well spend some down time at home," he added.

On the firm's return to the office and the future of remote working, Levine added: "I think by the end of this, we will have people working more flexibly at their request, and maybe people will get used to working from home. What I do think is that the working world will not be quite the same again."

Other international firms to have evaluated their remote working options in recent weeks include litigation boutique Hausfeld, which has said that it will allow its London workforce to continue working remotely until the end of 2020, even if the office is re-opened before then.

DLA has also been prepping for a potential return to the firm's U.K. offices and has appointed a task for to gauge whether staff could be back in the workplace by early June. Hogan Lovells and Baker McKenzie have confirmed that they are eyeing a return to their London offices.

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