In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, New York is beginning to rebuild. The storm shuttered many law firms and courts, but the lights are turning back on now for at least a few Manhattan firms. Notably, on Monday, Sullivan & Cromwell reopened its downtown office near the waterfront.
The firm owns a 60 percent interest in the building, which was submerged under 35 feet of water during Sandy, and now needs to reconstruct three of its sub-levels, which contained a parking garage and a health center, among other things.
Law firms farther uptown, including Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, have been slowly reopening over the past two weeks, but those closer to the water, and, subsequently, the damage, have remained closed.
For example, the downtown offices of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson and Gordon & Rees are still closed. Mercedes Colwin, N.Y. managing partner of Gordon & Rees, told Thomson Reuters that the firm’s building was hit so hard that "a homeless person was thrust in our lobby by the surging waters and drowned."
For more InsideCounsel coverage of natural disasters, see below:
5 unusual natural disaster lawsuits
Shareholders sue Tepco execs for Fukushima nuclear disaster
Litigation: 5 strategies for collecting maximum insurance dollars
