Postdiluvian and the Baling Out: Flood Recovery Resources for Lawyers

Given Massachusetts (and New England’s generally) unpredictable weather patterns, it’s true that you never quite know what you’re going to get. Over the weekend, and earlier this week, what we got was some serious flooding, resulting in property damage, road closures and much other inconvenience. Fortunately for us, flooding is a rather rare occurrence in these here parts. Nevertheless, if you have not prepared for the possibility of flood damage, your mood can become just as waterlogged as your stuff. Water damage can be severe, both in its immediate and long-term impacts. With flood damage, as well as with other potential disasters and business interruptions, it only takes one time to bring the point of preparedness home. (Incidentally, I have a great (or, probably, really, not-so-great) flood damage story. Unfortunately, it is far too off-color for a family blog, like this one. Suffice it to say that it was a pretty “crappy” situation.)

But, more to the point, as the sunshine returns to us . . . you’re likely in one or two spots: you’re either thinking of sump pumping or otherwise clearing off your aquatically-situated property (recovery) and/or you’re thinking about what to do to prevent water damage for the future (preparedness). Let us answer, in a bit, for both.

After conversing with God, Noah chose to take with him on his ark male and female sets of creatures of every description to repopulate the Earth. I might be a bit smarter about it: You see, I’d take all my office files, in sturdy cabinets, locked and fire- and water-proofed, and I’d take with me practice management advisors of every description, and load up my boat, if I had a boat. Then, when the waters receded, I’d reestablish my law practice, with all my files and templates, and with the best advice around. Of course, all my clients would be dead, and there would be no new clients available. And, I wouldn’t really do that anyway: If I had a world to make anew, I would certainly not open a law practice. But, that being left aside, even in this middle diluvian period, I don’t have the ark, and I don’t have the files, and I don’t know what the hell a cubit is; but, I do have access to the law practice management advisors. And, those folks have been kind enough to share with me, so that I can share with you, some tremendous resources on disaster planning and recovery, both generally and with respect to flooding, being that this a problem that we do not often come across in Massachusetts, but that becomes an issue, from time to time, in other areas of the country, areas of the country that other practice management advisors populate.

Without further blathering on my part, then, I present “the resources”:

The American Bar Association provides a substantial Disaster Law Resources page. For flood-related resources, review the materials respecting Hurricane Katrina especially. (Per the ever-generous Catherine Sanders Reach.)

The Law Office Management Assistance Program of the State Bar of Wisconsin offers some great resources through Practice Management Advisor Nerino Petro’s blog: see here, here, here and here. Wisconsin also provides a disaster resources page, and has established a bulletin board for flood-related updates, for when flooding occurs in the state.

Dan Pinnington, Director of practicePRO at the Lawyers’ Professional Indemnity Company (LAWPRO) in Toronto offers much information for managing practice interruptions, including flooding and flood damage.

Laura Calloway, Director of the Practice Management Assistance Program at the Alabama State Bar points to Alabama’s P-MAP Disaster Recovery Kit.

Beverly Michaelis, Practice Management Advisor at the Professional Liability Fund of the Oregon State Bar (and guest on the next episode of the “Legal Toolkit” podcast!) checks in with a post-disaster checklist and an article respecting methods for protecting your firm from disaster.

The Oregon resources, as well as a more generic listing of resources, including some of the above-mentioned, but more, are available at this drop site.