Todd Kleinman leads Agility Recovery’s legal sales efforts. Prior to joining Agility Recovery’s strategic sales team in 2011, Todd practiced law for the better part of 12 years first in New York and then Colorado, most recently as General Counsel of a renewable energy company. His wife and two delightful children have given repeated assurance that the decision to leave the practice of law was a good one.
With recent memories of Super Storm Sandy, the snowstorm that shut down the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, or even the deadly tornados of late 2012 fresh in our minds, we still never believe some unexpected disaster will affect us.
There is no hard definition of what constitutes a disaster. Some develop quickly, hitting full-force with little to no warning. Others loom on the horizon for an extended period of time. While all disasters pose a serious threat, sometimes it is the ones we least expect that cause the most damage.
The coverage of this year’s natural disasters has inevitably spurred many business leaders to wonder: Could it happen to me? Could my office be completely destroyed? Of course, the answer is yes, but the real question remains: Would your firm survive?
The answer to this question lies in resiliency: the ability to mitigate, withstand and respond effectively to disruptive events. Building a culture of resiliency is an essential element of effective leadership, but one cannot develop such a culture without significant advance planning, practice, training and experience.
Resiliency is the key to surviving and ultimately thriving in challenging circumstances. As leaders within your firms, you have an obligation to actively encourage the development of a culture of resiliency. One way of doing this is to be fully and enthusiastically engaged in the development of business continuity and disaster recovery plans for your firm.
There are two essential sessions during this year’s National Conference discussing ways that you can become more actively engaged in developing a culture of resiliency. “Does Your Disaster Plan Need a Makeover?,” presented by Kathryn N. Scourby, Senior Business Continuity Manager at Hunton & Williams, LLP, and the Business Matters! session “Business Survival: Agility’s Disaster Recovery Solutions” with Agility Recovery Solutions, an ALA Value in Partnership (VIP) participant with more than 24 years of disaster recovery experience.
With the information and tools that will be provided in these sessions, it leaves little or no doubt that you’ll walk away from them with an understanding of how to best prepare and protect your firm, personnel and yourself, as well as identifying the services available to ensure that you’ll be ready for anything.
If your firm has been affected by a disaster, what pearls of wisdom can you share about readiness?
I really enjoyed this posting. It is important to remember just how ‘quick” our surroundings can dramtically change and affect the well-being of our firms/businesses and the people that we work with. Kudos to the committee for putting this session on the agenda!