By Casey Sullivan
NEW YORK, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Sullivan & Cromwell, the large
New York law firm whose downtown office remained closed for two
weeks after Superstorm Sandy swept into Manhattan, reopened on
Monday.
The firm, whose office at 125 Broad Street is near the lower
Manhattan waterfront, remained closed as electric engineers and
other workers scrambled to restore power and pump out water that
flooded the building on Oct. 29.
Sullivan & Cromwell, which owns a 60 percent interest in the
building, will now look to reconstruct its three sub-levels,
which included a health center, equipment storage, auditoriums
and a parking garage, according to Sullivan & Cromwell Chairman
Joseph Shenker.
He said the building had been submerged under 35 feet of
water. Lawyers were working at its midtown office in the
interim.
Many of the firm's New York peers in the north of Manhattan
have reopened their offices over the past two weeks, like
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, while others closer to the
water's edge remain shuttered.
The downtown office of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver &
Jacobson, at One New York Plaza, remained closed as of Monday,
with lawyers working out of the firm's midtown offices.
"We are working closely with our landlord and expect to be
back in our offices at One New York Plaza in the near future,"
Mariana Loose, director of marketing and business development at
the firm, said in an email.
The main New York office of Gordon & Rees, a large
international law firm with an office in the Financial District,
also remained closed.
Mercedes Colwin, the New York managing partner of Gordon &
Rees, said in an email that the firm's office at 90 Broad Street
should reopen by Nov. 30, according to building managers, but
she considered the date unrealistic considering the damage to
the electrical circuitry.
She said the building was hit so hard by Sandy that "a
homeless person was thrust in our lobby by the surging waters
and drowned."
Colwin said the firm has leased temporary office space in
midtown and relocated lawyers there.
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