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
