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Connecticut Firms Look To Boston For Lessons
Coping With Crisis
JAY STAPLETON
The Connecticut Law Tribune
04-19-2013
Law firms in large Connecticut cities responded to the deadly bombings in Boston last week by taking a closer look at
their crisis response plans.
Those with offices in both Boston and Connecticut took an even closer look on Monday, as some awaited word on
office closures in Boston. At firms like Hinckley, Allen & Snyder, Wiggin and Dana, Murtha Cullina and McCarter &
English, associates in Connecticut offices were told they might have to step in to help their Boston colleagues with work
tasks if needed.
It didn't come to that. Kenneth Levonaitis, the Newark, N.J.-based chief information officer for McCarter & English,
spent a lot of time communicating with lawyers in the Boston office last week. Although the firm has a broad crisis
management plan, which includes rented emergency office space in remote locations outside of Boston and Hartford,
no extraordinary measures were required last week.
"We have two main contingencies in the event of a disaster," Levonaitis explained. "One is to protect our people, and
we want to make sure they are safe and know where to go and what to do if a disaster strikes. The second one is to
protect client information and to make sure all data is saved off site."
The bombings at about 2:50 p.m. on April 15 at the finish line of the Boston Marathon killed three people and injured
about 180. People who work in Boston law offices reported they were shaken by the experience, but unhurt. For the
most part, lawyers in Boston went about their business by Tuesday. Then on Friday, April 19, the city was once again
shaken when police ordered all residents to stay inside — and all businesses to stay closed — while a manhunt for one
of the bombing suspects was underway.
"Our people were informed this morning through our emergency notification system of the activities in and around
Watertown [Mass.] and were advised to stay home," Marc Crisafulli, managing partner for Hinckley Allen & Snyder, said
Friday. The firm has 89 lawyers in Boston and 23 in Hartford. With the office in Boston's financial district shut down on
Friday, Crisafulli said a few people who lived outside of the evacuation zone came to work.
"When a [lockdown] order was expanded to the city of Boston, our building was locked down. Then there was a window
of time where people were allowed to leave, so all of our people exited safely," Crisafulli said. "We are now officially
closed for the day."
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While his firm has a crisis management plan in place to alert employees and clients of disaster events, Crisafulli said
the plan is under constant internal scrutiny. "As for disaster plans, we have detailed plans for our facilities and our
systems and our process includes emergency notification," Crisafulli said. "An unfortunate weakness exists, however,
and we are not sure how to address it. Notification occurs on home phone, by email and by cell phone. If our people are
not at home and do not have cell coverage, as happened to many people in Boston on Monday, we are unable to
communicate with them."
No Cache Of Food
Robert J. Munnelly Jr., partner in charge of Murtha Cullina's Boston office and a licensed Connecticut lawyer, said his
firm has basic emergency plans. Those include backing up all data on a routine basis and using secure off-site
computer servers, so lawyers can work when they are kept from the office. While the Boston office has the basic
emergency plans "to get people out of the building in the event of a fire," it doesn't go much beyond that.
"It's not like we have a cache of food of food on hand or anything," Munnelly said. But in light of the Boston events,
Munnelly said it might be time to look into a more advances crisis plan for its offices in cities, including Boston, Hartford,
New Haven and Stamford.
Munnelly's regulatory practice includes representing energy, telecommunications and cable companies in Connecticut
and Massachusetts. "Several of these companies are subject to requirements, either locally or nationally, to protect
their facilities and to be able to coordinate with state authorities in the event of an emergency," Munnelly said.
He said law firms might learn from some of the plans other companies use. For example, increasing the lines of
communications with emergency responders might be advisable.
Right now, Munnelly's firm send notifications to alert employees of office closures or evacuations by email and
voicemail, but such communications are not firm-wide. "The managing partner [in each office] is able to make decisions
about the situation in their particular office," he said. "With input from the firm's executive committee."
Munnelly said it might be time to look at expanding their crisis plan.
"We should do a little more disaster planning, I agree," he said. "It's certainly something that merits some thought, given
there are things that have been in recent years, starting with 9/11, the big East Coast blackout, and now, these
apparent terrorist attacks."
'Ahead Of Curve'
Some firms have been bolstering their crisis management plans over the years.
One of the more advanced plans has been drafted by Wiggin and Dana. Whether a disaster that presents itself as
weather-related or acts of terror, the firm has a "framework plan of how to protect our employees and secure our
locations," said Andrew Pal, chair of Wiggin's safety and business continuity committee. With offices in Hartford and
Stamford, his firm has frequent meetings to update its crisis response plan.
"We are already way ahead of the curve," said Pal, who works in the firm's New York office. All of the firm's offices,
including those in New York and Philadelphia, assign one person on every floor to be a certified safety coordinator.
That person, he said, alerts other staff members of security or safety concerns. "Each floor is equipped with safety
equipment, flashlights, blankets, that sort of thing," Pal said. "And most of our offices also have some sort of food on
hand for emergencies."
Although Pal wouldn't elaborate on the specific food products they keep on hand, "for security purposes," it's enough
"to last a little bit of time."
Pal said that after events occur elsewhere, such as those in Boston last week, the safety committee will discuss what
steps it might take to further protect the office and its employees. Pal chose not to elaborate on what security topics
might be raised at the next meeting. "I'd rather not talk about security," he said. "I wouldn't want say anything and have
some sociopath know what we have."•
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