• by Laura Lee

Creating an Emergency Plan for Your Law Firm

Creating an Emergency Plan for Your Law Firm

Many of us recognize the importance of having an emergency plan for our family in the event a crisis strikes. We stock up on emergency kits, we designated meet-up spots, we buy the right insurance policies, etc. all in the name of preparedness.

Yet most practice owners have not taken the same care or caution to create emergency plans for their law firm. This is a huge mistake that could affect not only you… but your family, your livelihood (read: $$) and your employees if a serious problem occurs.

While you may have insurance for your business that would cover losses in the event of a catastrophic event like a fire or a flood, there are other routine and practical items to consider so that your business can continue to operate with minimal downtime or hiccups.

If you haven’t already, sit down with your core team members and decision makers in the practice this week. Bring up the following agenda items and talk about each situation to ensure you have an appropriate plan in place that everyone is familiar with and prepared to follow.

• Client Files- What is the plan to protect client files? Could you begin to move key documents into the cloud? Are you properly backing-up or keeping copies of cloud-based documents in case something happens to your web-based files?
• Employee Contact Information- If an employee fails to show up for work or can’t be reached for any length of time, do you have a back-up person to contact (a spouse, loved one, neighbor?). Do you have emergency contact information for contractors or virtual employees (IT techs, web designers, virtual receptionist, document drafters) for the same reasons?
• Office Inventory- Have you created an inventory of your office equipment, resources, furniture, etc. so that you could quickly determine the extent of damage and expedite your insurance claims if something happens? (Pictures are key here as well).
• Designate a “back up” location- Think of alternative places where your law firm could continue to operate, employees and all, if your current location was damaged or unavailable for any reason.·
• Create Escape Routes- If your office is in a high-rise or other public building structure, make sure your employees are familiar with all emergency escape routes and exits. Not all emergencies have “prep” time like a hurricane!

Finally, it would be helpful to record the discussion that you have with your team regarding your emergency plans. Once you work through your options, you can then transcribe the audio of your meeting and simply clean up the transcript so that you have a proper “emergency plan” manual in writing that can be referred to and amended quarterly.

We’d love to hear of your success in creating an emergency plan for your firm. And if you’d like to discuss your marketing plans and how we can help, schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings, virtual cup of coffee.