Baker's Chile Office Has 'Some Cracks' But Is Otherwise Intact
Thanks to solid construction and quick thinking, Baker & McKenzie’s office in Chile, was in business just two days after the 8.8 earthquake there on Feb. 27, and all 38 lawyers and other staffers are safe.
León Larrain, the managing partner of Baker & McKenzie’s Santiago office told the Am Law Daily that the quake cracked some of the walls and floors of the office, and that the air conditioning isn’t yet working properly, but that the office is fully operational.
“Most of the construction here is well prepared for earthquakes, so the city responded in general quite well,” Larrain told the Am Law Daily. Many clients’ properties in southern Chile were badly damaged, he said.
Larrain told the Am Law Daily that he was on the coast in Las Brisas de Santo Domingo with his family. He said they were awakened at 3:35 a.m. by the quake and immediately drove away from the seashore, fearing a tsunami. Larrain said it was an eight-hour drive from the shore back to Santiago—as opposed to the typical two—because the quake knocked out Santo Domingo’s bridge. No one in his family was injured.
