Don’t Let Client Confidences Turn into Coloring Paper: Remember to Recycle Responsibly

As we rush headlong into the Christmas season, on the heels of that other holiday emblematic of overindulgence that arrived just shortly after America Recycles Day, recycling may well be on everyone’s mind as we ponder ways to get rid of excess stuff. Regifting the box of chocolate-covered pears a client just sent you? No problem by me—just be certain to remove the gift tag. Sending leftover food items from the office get-togethers to a homeless shelter? All the better. Those are sometimes easy, heart-pleasing fixes to the problem of overconsumption, whether personally or professionally.

Recycling paper can be a feel-good activity (and cutting down on usage can be a real money-saver), but law firms have to tread a bit more carefully when they are getting rid of excess work product. After all, you don’t want an overly enthusiastic paralegal to take a ream of used paper from the recycling bin to her kindergartener’s classroom; five-year-olds and their parents don’t need to color on one side and read all about a client’s litigation options on the other.

In this season of excess even when the economy’s still pretty tight, remember to recycle responsibly. Make sure that  confidential information isn’t getting into the wrong hands and that paper with sensitive material on it is handled and disposed of properly. Know and address confidentiality issues with your firm’s recycler, and make sure that everyone in a law firm knows what can be safely recycled and what shouldn’t be.  Teach, train, and follow up. Just remember to print fewer sheets of paper (and make them double-sided if you do!) while you’re strengthening your firm’s environmental initiatives.

—Lori Tripoli

Were Law Firms Prepared Enough for Hurricane Sandy?

The news that New York’s Sullivan & Cromwell is just now reopening its Manhattan office and that other major law firms remain closed serve as cogent reminders that, even as the rest of the nation has moved on to other big news stories, the tri-state area surrounding the Big Apple remains hard-hit by Hurricane Sandy. Law firms in and out of the region would be served well not only to dust off their own emergency preparedness plans but to update their firm rosters. Remember to include a communications component: If the firm’s offices remain shut, who will contact employees, clients, opposing counsel, and courts? If the office is closed, where is the firm’s incoming mail going? Who will oversee the rebuilding of the firm?  Who will get paid while the firm’s doors are shut?

Always, many elements of a crisis will be impossible to predict—their breadth, duration, extent. Those firms struggling right now as a result of Sandy would do well, once the immediate crisis has passed, to reassess their preparedness. What went right? What went wrong? What do they know now that they’d wish they’d known before? Were people personally affected by the storm able to lead sufficiently in the aftermath of the storm? Should an alternative power structure have been in place? Did your information technology team function as well as you wanted it to?

Law firms looking to provide pro bono assistance to victims of Hurricane Sandy might visit here.

—Lori Tripoli

Cranky Clients May Be Shell-Shocked Sandy Victims

Even though a bit of time and a presidential election have separated much of the world from the news event that was Hurricane Sandy, it would be good to remember that it will be a good long while before much of the East Coast affected by the “Frankenstorm” will be back to normal. Even those who escaped relatively unscathed—with homes and offices essentially intact and power restored—are likely to be a bit shell-shocked from the event. They might be okay, but their communities are not. Many are still without power or Internet access. Neighborhoods have changed; people have died. This isn’t an event that people recover from within a short news cycle.  Even though recovery has already begun, it is far from complete. Lawyers and paralegals may do well to remember that their clients may still be traumatized by this event. Kudos to those legal organizations doing something to help.

—Lori Tripoli