Advisory for Law Practices on Elevated Safe Distancing Measures - Gradual Resumption of Business Activities

20 MAY 2020

20 May 2020 Posted in Announcements

  1. The Multi-Ministry Taskforce announced on 19 May 2020 that Circuit Breaker measures will be gradually eased from 2 June 2020, and businesses will be allowed to resume activities in a phased manner. MTI’s advisory on the gradual resumption of business activities in phases starting from 2 June 2020 is at https://www.mti.gov.sg/-/media/MTI/Newsroom/Press-Releases/2020/05/MTI-Advisory-on-resumption-of-activities-from-2-June-2020.pdf.
  1. Legal services is included in the list of businesses (accurate as of 19 May 2020) that may operate from 2 June 20201.
  1. The scheduled resumption of business activities from 2 June 2020 is ultimately dependent on the health situation. Should community transmission rise, the Ministry of Trade and Industry will re-evaluate the timeline and the businesses that can resume operations from 2 June 2020.
  1. Law practices do not need to apply for an exemption before resuming operations. MTI will grant law practices a class exemption to resume business. Law practices must submit their manpower details via the GoBusiness portal (https://covid.gobusiness.gov.sg) within two weeks of the date of resumption of operations.
  1. Telecommuting should be adopted to the maximum extent. Those who have been working from home so far should continue to do so. Employees should only come into the office when demonstrably needed, e.g. to access specialised systems/equipment that cannot be accessed from home or to complete a contract or transaction that is legally required to be completed in person and on-site.
  1. Law practices must also comply with the requirements for Safe Management Measures2 seen on https://covid.gobusiness.gov.sg/safemanagement/general. All law practices must put in place Safe Management Measures before resuming workplace activities, in order to provide a safe working environment and prevent transmission at the workplace. These requirements include the staggering of working and break hours, ensuring clear physical spacing of at least 1 metre between persons, and implementing SafeEntry to record the entry of all personnel and visitors. Strict checks will be conducted, and law practices that do not provide a safe workplace for their staff will have their operations suspended until they are able to do so.

For more information, please refer to our FAQs.

MINISTRY OF LAW
30 May 2020

1. For the list of businesses which may operate from 2 June 2020, please refer to https://covid.gobusiness.gov.sg/permittedlist/. ↩

2. For full requirements of Safe Management Measures and checklist on MOM website, please refer to https://www.mom.gov.sg/covid-19/requirements-for-safe-management-measures. ↩