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Terror:
September 11 – one year after
Shocked. Proud.
Looking Ahead. (III)
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Oliver Weiss
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T E R R
O R & B E Y O N D – S T A T E M E N T S O N 9 - 1 1 |
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Helping
Handbooks
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n response to September 11, 2001, attorneys and staff in Morrison &
Foerster's New York office worked with Association of the Bar of the City of New
York to prepare a comprehensive legal resource handbook for individuals and
families affected by the attack on the World Trade Center. The Helping
Handbook: Legal Resources for Families of Victims of the World Trade Center
Disaster, which was published in both English and Spanish, was available at
the Family Assistance Centers, online and through a large number of
organizations that were provided with copies.
The Individual Handbook provided an overview of pertinent legal issues,
including probate, Social Security and unemployment and insurance benefits and
state and federal grant programs for individuals and families affected by the
attack. Over 40,000 copies of the handbook, which was also translated into
Spanish and Japanese, were distributed to various relief centers.
The Firm also prepared a Helping Handbook for Small Businesses Affected by
the World Trade Center Disaster, which provided an overview of some of the
legal issues faced by small business owners and nonprofit organizations
displaced or disrupted as a result of the disaster. Both the Individual and the
Small Business Handbooks can be found at www.mofo.com.
In addition, the Firm’s New York and D.C. attorneys assisted families of
victims in completing the necessary affidavits to obtain death certificates,
volunteering at disaster relief centers, working for the D.C. Pro Bono Relief
Project, and taking on individual pro bono cases.
Morrison & Foerster was honored to have been able to join with the City
Bar Association in helping those affected by the events of September 11. Knowing
that those affected by the World Trade Center disaster would be confronted with
a maze of legal issues, we wanted to provide a consolidated and
easy-to-understand overview of some of the issues. Even where the Handbooks did
not provide the final answers, they served as a practical guide to sources
people could turn to for more help.
For its work on the two books, the Firm received a letter of commendation
from the American Bar Association recognizing the efforts of the participating
attorneys. Based on the Firm’s September 11 response, and its extensive pro
bono representation generally, the Firm was later awarded The American Bar
Association Pro Bono Publico Award, which recognizes lawyers, law firms and
corporate law departments for extraordinarily noteworthy contributions in
extending free legal services to the poor and disadvantaged.
After the events of September 11th, everyone in the office wanted to pitch-in
and help the victims, their families and the community. What started as a small
idea to provide a source for resources to help point people looking for
assistance in the right direction, turned into a comprehensive, 73 page
handbook. The depth of the Handbooks was due to the outpouring of dedication and
support from our attorneys and staff to make a difference in the nation's time
of grief. We are very proud of this pro bono effort especially because it helped
so many people in the wake of a national tragedy.
Jamie A. Levitt is a litigation partner with Morrison & Foerster in New York. Her practice includes complex commercial litigation, securities, criminal and regulatory defense, and intellectual property.
Morrison & Foerster LLP is one of the world's largest law firms with 1,000 lawyers in 18 offices
worldwide, among them New York, Washington D.C., Denver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Brussels, London, Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore, and
Tokyo.
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Offering
Help
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ike all New Yorkers, we were shocked by the tragic events of September 11.
It was a great experience, however, to learn that so many people all over the world felt exactly the same way.
After our return to the office several days after the attack, Hughes Hubbard
helped two local firehouses, Engine Co. 219/Ladder 105 and Engine 226, establish not-for-profit corporations in order to administer the donations received from members of their communities.
In addition, we assisted tenants in buildings located near the World Trade Center in resolving housing disputes, including negotiating lease terminations and rent abatements. The firm also represented the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, a not-for-profit organization which provided artists with studio space in the World Trade Center, in drafting agreements concerning LMCC's and artists' rights in connection with a retrospective show and auction of the works of artists that participated in the program.
Numerous lawyers from the firm were active in a program organized by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York to steer surviving family members through the maze of governmental and charitable assistance organizations that were offering help.
Jan J.H. Joosten is with the corporate department of Hughes Hubbard and Reed in New York.
His practice areas include Aviation, Capital Markets, Corporate Law,
Corporate Governance, International Joint Ventures, and Mergers &
Acquisitions.
Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP is a full-service law firm with approximately 300 legal practitioners, and offices in New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Miami and Paris.
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Opening
Doors
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n the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, some 50,000 workers from hundreds of dislocated businesses in lower Manhattan found themselves disconnected—from loved ones, from colleagues, and from co-workers. If destruction and disruption were the terrorists’ goals, these victims answered with a simple, but effective, response.
They went back to work.
Hundreds of businesses in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut opened their doors to displaced colleagues, clients, and competitors. Having just exercised an expansion option, Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw was able to offer an entire floor of office space in our mid-town Manhattan building.
The Bank of Nova Scotia, seeking to keep its staff together, came with all 230 of its Lower Manhattan office personnel. Lehman Brothers sent us 70 professionals and staff, and 57 more workers joined us from Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. American Access Capital, Barclays Bank, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Oppenheimer, and Refco sent displaced workers. By the first weekend, over 400 brokers, bankers, traders, and staff had moved in.
To equip them, computers and IT accessories were packed into two rental trucks in Chicago, driven overnight to New York, then unloaded, installed, and cabled together to create workstations and temporary trading floors. New York staffers worked round-the-clock shifts to orient and support the newcomers.
Housing our guests, however, wasn’t enough—they also had to be connected. The first weekend we added 400 phone lines to our existing 800, but by the following week, even those weren’t enough. By Wednesday, September 19, most calls weren’t getting in or out. The regional Bell phone carrier would be able to install additional T-1 lines—in about two months.
Our telecom consultants, Rockefeller Group Telecommunications Services, Inc., had an idea. There was a clear sight line between our building at 52nd and Broadway and the roof of the McGraw Hill building—where RGTS had excess trunk line capacity—several blocks away. Theoretically, wireless laser optic technology could be used to re-route all our outbound telephone traffic to a rooftop receiver and free up the system for inbound calls.
The laser technology had been beta-tested, once, but for data only—not voice. On Friday, the tech wizards started installing internal routing lines, and a day later they had mounted an optic laser-like device on a tripod at a 23rd floor office window facing south. On Sunday, September 21, the switch was flicked, the phones blossomed to life, and 400 workers were reconnected to the world by a beam of light.
James B. Carlson is Partner-in-Charge of Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw's New York office. He specializes in acquisitions, and securities.
Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw is the tenth largest law firm in the world. It has over
1,300 lawyers spread across 13 offices worldwide, including representations in the world's major financial centres: London, Paris, Frankfurt and New York.
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We
Will Have to Get Used to a Different Normality
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was in a meeting when a staff member burst in and
said, "A plane has hit the World Trade Center." Of course, everyone
had an accident in mind, a sports airplane accident, i.e. I immediately called
up a colleague in New York who was frantic, and told
me it was an airliner. I slammed down the phone and turned on
the TV – just in time to witness the second plane hit the other tower.
Petrified, my assistants and I watched the
successive events. I thought, what a nightmare! Dear God, let me wake up! When
the towers collapsed, we were all in tears.
I was not able to reach the colleagues in New
York for hours. They later reported they were busy checking with friends and
neighbors who they thought might have been affected. Sadly enough, the attacks claimed their
own toll among the legal community...
Fortunately, the US goverment reacted swiftly.
Its Federal Fund which was approved by Congress within weeks after the incidents
was meant as a fast means of relief. A year later, a wave of
compensation is about to begin; the first payments are expected within the next few
days. This, of course, is an important symbol of support for those left behind,
even though
no money in the world can compensate for their losses.
Not only the aviation world has changed
since the events.
A deep shadow has been cast on the impartial attitude towards freedom and liberty
– it was this attitude which has always made me feel fond of the
"American way of life." Not surprisingly, that shadow has
not vanished after this one year. "Normality", I am afraid, is unlikely to be regained within our lifetime. In
other words, we will have to get used to a different normality.
Prof. Dr. Elmar Giemulla is an attorney-at-law in New York, specializing in
aviation law. He is also a lecturer in aviation law in Cologne and Berlin. Prof. Giumella frequently cooperates with New York's Kreindler & Kreindler
law firm who have represented personal injury cases from Andrea Dorea
to PanAm-Lockerbie, and the World Trade Center. - We also have a 9-11
statement by Jim
Kreindler.
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Oliver's
Year 2012
The world has
changed after September 11, 2001, when terrorists destroyed the
World Trade Center and devastated the Pentagon. Oliver Weiss has
asked former mayor Ed Koch, and twelve legal professionals in
New York City to give us a personal account of their
recollections of 9-11.
