A disaster plan in action: How a law firm in the World Trade Center survived 9/11 with vital records and employees intact

The next day, all New York lawyers had e-mail access again, although their accounts did not provide access to their complete mailboxes, which held many vital documents (often 1 gigabyte or more of mail per person).The backup tapes did not contain such extensive amounts of mail per person. By afternoon, it was determined that other backup tapes were in good condition and that other systems could be converted and restored. By Thursday evening, a secure extranet was established,and the previously scheduled records conversion begun.

On Friday morning, September 14, the document management system became available to everyone. By noon, equipment from other offices and personnel was arriving in rented cars and vans to assist in the setup of the temporary quarters. By evening, the financial systems were restored. Standard software was determined and loaded on rented and new PCs. Set up of the temporary quarters continued over the weekend while Chicago employees continued to convert and restore systems. An extraordinary effort on the part of many administrative staff members took place, with many individuals working around the clock.

In the records department, the data conversion was completed on schedule on Sunday, September 16, with only a few exceptions. The bigger challenge would come during the next months as lawyers requested, but did not always receive, files.The pre-9/11 refrain of "No, don't send that offsite" became "Please tell me you sent it offsite!" Any former Brown & Wood files returned from storage needed to have all labels changed before delivery to a lawyer, as they had to reflect the new client/matter numbers and folder bar codes.The most frequent request in the records department was for reports to determine what had been destroyed.

Almost one week after the disaster, on Monday morning, September 17, the New York office personnel met in the Waldorf Astoria hotel ballroom and were given new identification badges, assigned office locations, and phone numbers.While not everyone had a desk or computer set up, they at least knew they had a place to sit. Many individuals were sent home until the office became a bit more settled. Subsequently, almost everyone returned to work over the next few weeks and months.

Grading the Recovery Plan

How did the disaster recovery plan work? It worked well to a certain extent. The firm did have the right records listed as vital. This became clear within hours of the disaster.The recovery team members did work on their parts of the plan. Overall,communication became a much larger issue than anticipated, and everyone worked hard to make sure that it was ongoing and appropriate.

Some individuals listed as having supervisory roles in the disaster recovery plan ended up not having job assignments, which was frustrating to those sitting around on 9/11. Part of the problem stemmed from a lack of testing of the plan the year before.

Did the plan need fine tuning? Yes. Just as with every plan, some things could not have been anticipated, such as the massive shutdown of Manhattan and of air transportation. Since 9/11,the firm has reviewed and revised its disaster recovery plan.