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

Barr, Jean

When two planes slammed into the World Trade Center (WTC) buildings on September 11, 2001 (9/11), the law firm Sidley Austin Brown & Wood LLP (SAB&W) was hit directly. The firm occupied floors 54 through 59 in the North Tower, the building hit first. Within the first hour of hearing the news in the main office in Chicago, the firm's disaster recovery plan was pulled from shelves, copied, and distributed to key supervisory personnel and management committee lawyers.

Just five months earlier, SAB&W was formed through the merger of Sidley & Austin and Brown & Wood to become a single multinational firm with 1,500 lawyers and more than 3,000 total personnel working in 14 offices in six countries. In New York on 9/11,approximately 600 people were assigned to the WTC offices and 400 to the office on Third Avenue in midtown Manhattan.

The firm was in the process of consolidating the different systems - manual and automated - from both firms, as each had its own network with different hubs, as well as two different e-mail systems (Outlook and Lotus Notes), document management systems (iManage and PCDocs), and telephone systems. The systems consolidation was just beginning, with September 30 and December 31 being the next target dates for many system changes.

Although all client/matter numbers were changed in a data conversion in May 2001, several more data conversions were planned, with the final data consolidation in the records departments scheduled for September 15-17. This involved changing all barcoded folder numbers for the former Brown & Wood's 300,000 folders, as this was far less than the former Sidley & Austin's 2 million folders.

Protecting Vital Records

When the disaster recovery plan was instituted, the first documents needed were contact lists: employees' home and emergency phone numbers, vendor lists, and client lists. Of greatest concern was the safety of the firm's employees. Human resources personnel in the Chicago office began calling all New York employees, and by the next morning, all but a handful were accounted for. By September 13, only one individual had not been located.

The emphasis on communication continued throughout the day on 9/11 and for several weeks afterward. Bulletins were posted on the firm's Internet site, www.sidley.com, and the management committee sent internal e-mails to all personnel. A quick decision was made on 9/11 to staff the switch-board for 48 hours with SAB&W operators between 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m., instead of using an answering service. This was done in order to provide a live contact for anyone calling the firm. All New York calls were routed to Chicago, and the former weather hotline was changed to an emergency line to provide ongoing updates and information.

The timetable for many system consolidations was suddenly moved up two weeks, and backup tapes played a crucial role. The weekly backup tapes from all systems in the WTC were stored offsite in New Jersey, which turned out to be a propitious decision. These tapes were driven to Chicago, where the main servers reside and data consolidations would take place.

Meanwhile in New York, by the afternoon of 9/11 a partner had procured additional office space in the Third Avenue building to accommodate 600 additional people. The purchasing department got on the phone and bought new computers from Dell Systems to be delivered to the Third Avenue office. They also acquired used furniture for offices and hotel space in New York for out-of-town personnel and those unable to return home.

Some of the firm's vital records consisted of client, personnel, vendor and services lists, backup tapes, floor plans with personnel locations identified, inventory lists of equipment, furniture, and supplies, procedures manuals, docket calendars, and blank checks. Most of these were used in the days after 9/11. Some items were available because they were part of a planned dispersal in which they had been copied and sent offsite for safe keeping. Other items were part of an automatic dispersal plan.

Disaster Recovery

On Wednesday morning, September 12, the entire Chicago office met with the local management committee members. It was an unprecedented meeting everyone in the office attended. When it was announced that the firm's insurance policies had just been renewed and doubled on September 1, 2001, applause filled the room.The insurance policies not only covered reconstruction costs for the files but for the organization's valuable art collection and personal effects as well.

In New York, the Third Avenue office was operating with a skeleton staff and was officially closed. However, many lawyers were working at home, in client offices, or other locations. Behind the scenes, cabling in the new space started, and planning for temporary furniture, phones, and computers was taking place.

A broadcast e-mail was sent to other offices requesting that spare computers be identified and packed for shipment to New York.The backup tapes arrived in Chicago that Wednesday afternoon, and the restoration process began. By afternoon, voicemail accounts were being reconstrutted for New York personnel, and the server was being rebuilt for all accounts.

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.

Lessons Learned

Communication with personnel in the New York office and elsewhere, with clients, media, and vendors was the key immediately after the disaster. Communication made it possible to verify the safety of all employees in New York and Washington, D.C. The next priority was reassuring the rest of the firm and its clients that SAB&W was functioning. Use of the firm's Web site, news stories, switchboard, and a toll-free number all contributed to the ability to communicate.

The firm also learned the value of friends including clients, vendors, cocounsel, and even competitors. Gaining temporary office space in the same building where the midtown Manhattan office resided was crucial, as was the leasing of more permanent space three months later. Concern for the well being of the firm's employees was manifested in the Employee Assistance Plan counselors being onsite in the New York office for anyone who needed to talk.

Having the weekly computer backup tapes offsite in New Jersey turned out to be a fortuitous decision as the weekly tapes in New York could not be retrieved due to the lack of transportation and closure of the tunnels leading into Manhattan in the days following the attacks. In the future, SAB&W will store daily tapes outside metropolitan areas.

The emphasis in the firm continues to be on standard operating procedures, standard software and hardware, and network infrastructure to make it possible to quickly load new and rented computers. Custom software or hardware must wait until long after a disaster before it can be installed. Recovering e-mail and document management systems had to be the top priority in order for the firm to support its clients. Web access into the firm's systems became a necessity, not a luxury, for many lawyers and administrative personnel.

Keeping an updated insurance policy that includes adequate coverage for valuable papers and reconstruction costs is key. Having a records database enabled the firm to quickly determine the number of files destroyed and assisted in the quick receipt of insurance payouts. Within weeks of the disaster, the database was marked to show the destruction of more than 23,000 files.

Finally, the extraordinary effort by a multitude of people made the recovery a success. Many dedicated people from technicians to administrative staff - worked around the clock to re-establish offices, restore operations, and help SAB&W resume business.

Jean Barr, CRM

Jean Barr, CRM, is RIM Manager at Sidley Austin Brown & Wood. She may be contactedafjbarr@sidley.com.

Copyright Association of Records Managers and Administrators Inc. May/Jun 2003
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