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The U.K.'s Magic Circle firms are gearing up for returns to varying levels of normalcy over the next few months, as they prepare to move their workforces back into office space long stood practically empty from the impact of COVID-19.

Allen & Overy, Linklaters, Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Slaughter and May are all looking into how they can reopen their London headquarters, joining several firms to have already laid out plans.

A&O began letting limited amounts of people back to its London base on Monday, with spacing measures in place to control foot-flow.

According to one person with knowledge of the situation, the firm will only allow one person in one lift at a time and is limiting meeting rooms to hosting just two guests at once.

A spokesperson for the firm said in a statement: "From 15 June we entered the first stage of our phased reopening of our London office. In line with government guidelines the majority of staff will continue working from home in this phase, with a very limited number of people able to go into the office to work. Being able to go to the office is on a permission-only basis and numbers will be strictly limited."

Linklaters, meanwhile, is planning a "very gradual" opening of its Silk Street office within the next two months, according to a partner at the firm. The partner said the firm is making space available for "a limited number of people who really feel like they have to work in the city."

Another partner at the firm said that firm had put out surveys to staff on the subject of returning to the office.

The firm's London management will likely look to its German bases for workable solutions to returning to office. The firm has re-opened all five of its offices in the country, a spokesperson confirmed, with its Frankfurt, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Berlin and Munich bases currently operating at 50% capacity.

The spokesperson added: "The health and safety of our employees is our top priority. We are currently successively increasing the maximum number of people per floor in our offices in Germany to up to 50% of the usual floor headcount."

According to a London partner, Linklaters lawyers in Germany have also been attending socially-distanced client lunches for several weeks.

A Clifford Chance partner said the firm is currently mulling a return to its London base and which safety measures to adhere to when that happens, including when and where to wear face masks.

One key point of discussion is, according to that partner, how to get staff in and out of the office building safely, as their office in Canary Wharf has six separate entrances which it shares with other businesses, including Deutsche Bank.

The firm has reduced the amount of profit that can be distributed as bonuses as a result of the pandemic, according to another partner at the firm's London office. One partner at the firm said that the impact on associate and partner bonuses would be "small", while there may also be some impact on partner drawings in the future.

At Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, the firm's planned office move to its new base in 100 Bishopsgate is now set to happen in late summer, according to two partners there.

The partners said the delay to its office move will not be as severe as first anticipated.

One partner at the firm told Law.com International that at the "end of August or in the beginning of September is when we might see the first wave of people going in". He added this was "great news" as it seemed that the date would originally be "pushed back a long way".

The firm had been due to complete its move to 100 Bishopsgate in August 2020.

At Slaughter and May, two partners said there is a desire to return to the office and feedback is being sourced from its people, but that the firm will await further U.K. government advice and guidelines before planning a return.

The firm is in "no rush" to arrange a return but is continuing to monitor the situation, according to another person with knowledge of the process.

One partner said: "I was tired of the lockdown. Every aspect of your job is affected. I miss the office interactions with colleagues and having proper face to face contact. I think we're keen on returning, but if we were to do it now I think it would be very odd without the full government advice and guidelines."

Another partner at the firm added: "Right now, we're keeping things under constant review, and whenever we decide to reopen we'll be following social distancing guidelines and it will be on a voluntary basis, I think. We're listening to a lot of feedback and even if we were choosing to return within weeks, it wouldn't feel normal as there wouldn't be many people in the office so there's no rush for now."

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