The Law Office Management Assistance Service of the Florida Bar recommends that any disaster recovery plan should, at a minimum, address the following issues:
- Employee home telephone numbers personal and cell phone numbers, along with home addresses and e-mail addresses will be needed. Establish a telephone tree in order to facilitate staff contact if a disaster occurs. One or two individuals with cell phones should agree to allow individuals to call them in case there is limited telephone service. Attorneys and staff who regularly use a Palm Pilot, Blackberry or similar personal digital assistance can easily update emergency staff information as well as client and case information for use in an emergency.
- Building management and key personnel work and home phone numbers will be needed. Information about a building emergency, security following an emergency, and building access is much easier if the key contact information is at hand when needed. The Fire Department Emergency Coordinator in most cases will be working directly with the building management rather than individual tenants during an emergency situation. Having key building management personnel work and home telephone numbers available could be crucial in learning about building access or additional security precautions so that staff can be advised in a timely manner.
- Insurance policy information, including policy numbers, coverage, and contact information following a disaster can be crucial in trying to get the firm operating again as quickly as possible.
- The firm’s master docket and firm-wide calendar will be crucial to the continuation of client representation and quick recovery following a disaster. Re-creating a firm’s calendar following a disaster could be an impossible task. Emergency preparedness plans should always include a means to restore such vital information. Fortunately, technology today offers a number of alternatives such as: computer backups, personal digital assistants, and off-site data storage.
- The first 24 hours following a disaster are critical in preventing irreparable damage. Corrosion and mildew damage begin immediately following a fire or flood. Electrical and electronic equipment, while outwardly looking okay, after the delay of six or seven days, may well be beyond economic repair due to internal corrosion. Paper records and files, if wet, will already be in a state of decay from mold, fungal or bacterial growth after such a lengthy delay. Salvage of wet paper will now be much more difficult - if at all possible. The best hope for document recovery, according to experts in the document restoration business, is to quickly freeze all affected documents until professional help becomes available to begin the restoration process.
Taking a thoughtful approach to planning now can make the difference between your firm surviving a disaster, or not.
Additional information on disaster and recovery planning is available by searching the web (key words disaster recovery) or by calling: Federal Emergency Management Agency (800) 462-9029; BMS Catastrophe, Inc., (800) 433-2940; Disaster Recovery Services, Inc., (800) 856-3333.
Tags: big firms, law firms, law office management, small businesses
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