Melbourne law firm labelled 'key COVID-19 outbreak'

Hannah WoottonReporter

Jul 16, 2020 – 5.55pm

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Six COVID-19 cases linked to the Melbourne office of legal giant HWL Ebsworth have been labelled a "key outbreak" by the Victorian health department, forcing the firm to revise its preference that all staff work from the office amid the pandemic.

HWL Ebsworth managing partner Juan Martinez is now allowing staff to work from home. Hwa Goh

The cluster has grown from four cases last week, which saw two floors of the firm's Collins Street offices shut down for industrial cleaning.

Victorian Chief Medical Officer Brett Sutton said the six cases showed why people should not return to city offices.

When three cases were first identified at the firm last week, managing partner Juan Martinez told staff that "barring any issues", they were expected to return to the office this Monday after deep cleaning had occurred. This was before the cluster had grown to six.

Mr Martinez told staff that the cases posed no risk to co-workers as they had not been at the office while infectious.

The Department of Health and Human Services has since written to all staff at HWL Ebsworth in Melbourne, requesting that they undergo testing for COVID-19.

The firm reversed its position on remote work for its Melbourne office in light of the growing outbreak.

"All professional staff that can work from home have been given the option of doing so," Mr Martinez said on Thursday.

"Those team members that cannot work from home are operating on tailored arrangements, and our office environment has been set up to ensure that anyone that needs to work from the office can do so in a safe way."

The Victorian government has said that people who can work from home should do so throughout the pandemic.

This position was formalised in May, when Daniel Andrews introduced fines of $100,000 for employers whose staff returned to the office after working at home during the first wave of the pandemic.

Mr Martinez said the firm had "operated within guidelines at all times".

"We have worked very closely with the relevant authorities to ensure that we've met their expectations in that regard," he said.

"It's important to note that it is not an outbreak that originated from our office, and it didn't arise as a result of our operating practices."

Mr Martinez said that the virus was transmitted between staff at a private function outside the office and that all their team members had so far tested negative to COVID-19.

HWL, which employs over 1250 staff and boasts Australia's largest legal partnership, has bucked the trend of remote working adopted by most corporate employers globally during the pandemic.

When corporate Australia first sent staff home to work in March, HWL Ebsworth instituted a policy whereby any remote working requests were considered on a case-by-case basis by Mr Martinez.

The managing partner said at the time that he had no intention of "blindly following the lead of others like a lemming". Staff were allowed to work remotely from April, before returning to the office as restrictions eased.

This policy remains in place in the firm's offices outside of Melbourne, including for its large contingent of staff in Sydney.

Hannah Wootton is a reporter for the Financial Review. Connect with Hannah on Twitter. Email Hannah at hannah.wootton@afr.com