June 1999
by Edward Poll, J.D., M.B.A., CMC
Fires, floods, earthquakes, riots, hurricanes, ice storms, tornadoes, human error, employee sabotage, personal health problems or injury-what are you doing right now to plan for and recover from a minor or major interruption that could seriously disrupt your law firm's operations or even put you out of business? Here are some basic disaster planning suggestions that will help your firm (even if you're a sole practitioner) be prepared for the worst.
- Conduct a firm risk assessment. Analyze the possible consequences that a disaster could have on your firm. Carefully review your current state of readiness and look for weaknesses. This preparedness inventory should include reviewing your insurance policy, emergency evacuation procedures, alternate work sites, and information and document storage.
- Prepare a specific disaster-recovery-plan manual. This manual or plan should spell out exactly who does what after a disaster strikes. Part of this plan is creating a disaster recovery team or a committee of key personnel to carry out the plan. There should be one committee member for each sensitive area of the firm.
- Review-or establish-your insurance coverage. Insurance is a central aspect of disaster planning-and recovery. Make sure you understand the fine points of your insurance policy by having your agent explain the coverage, deductibles, settlement policies, etc.
- Plan for temporary space. If your office or building is damaged or destroyed, how will you continue to work? Contingency space planning ranges from having a temporary control center set up to house the disaster recovery team to finding temporary office space for transferring the entire firm. Building managers and real estate agents should be contacted in advance with contingency plans for locating such space.
- Back up all computer data and store these and other important records and documents in a safe, off-site place. Everything you save on the computer should be backed-up on a regular basis. This also applies to crucial paper records such as master files, time and billing records, court dates and appointments, wills, powers of attorney and corporate records as well. The frequency of computer back-ups depends on how much work you produce between back-ups and how much you can afford to lose.
- Establish an Employee Assistance Program. If valuable staff are important to any firm during normal times, then they are indispensable in times of a disaster. Consider creating a fund to be available to staff in times of need. Such an assistance program or relief fund could be set up with the firm matching grants to employee contributions.
- Have a written succession plan in place. In the case of a death of a primary rainmaker or managing partner in the firm, a clear plan for succession will allow for a smooth change in the running of the practice. "Key-man" life insurance may provide money to the firm after a death, but it is only the beginning. The most important thing is the continuation of the firm, and that requires someone to step in and take the place of the now-deceased attorney.
