Disaster Recovery
The topic of concern today, as it was on 9/12/01, is disaster recovery. I read yesterday that there are more than 6,000 lawyers displaced as a result of Katrina. How does one put one's personal and professional life back together? I don't know. At best, the answer is "... with great difficulty."
See the article I wrote, published in Law Technology News in its first issue after 9/11 ....
And, see Dennis Kennedy's material from his recent ABA presentation.
"Disaster" for a law firm is not a question of "if," but rather of "when." The only unknowns in the scenario is what type of disaster we will suffer, when it will occur and how bad it will be.
The key to success recovery, however, is to look at the topic with two perspectives in mind: i) The lesson I learned when working with large firms after 9/11 to create a plan for future disasters (earthquake, fire, plumbing-water leak damage, etc.) was that we're talking about more than recovery, we're really talking about business succession; and ii) If we don't review and revise the plan (at least every 6 months), the "plan" goes stale and becomes useless.
The other factor that makes for success is that the plan must be "performed" periodically. In other words, pretend a disaster has occurred ... now go into motion ... perform the steps needed to "recovery." Determine what worked, what didn't work, and then adjust the plan to take care of what didn't work.
Your energy on this effort is like insurance: Useless and expensive when not needed, and priceless when needed.
