Law Firm Office Safety Checklist

Walk every corridor, the file room, and the storage closet. Banker boxes stacked outside file rooms during discovery production are the most common offenders. Photograph any blocked egress and tag it for same-day correction — OSHA 1910.37 requires exit routes to be permanently unobstructed.

Confirm illuminated exit signs, restroom signage, and the SDS / first-aid station placard are visible from each work area. Replace any sign that is faded, peeling, or covered by a recently relocated bookcase or printer.

Run the 30-second test on each emergency fixture and the 90-minute load test annually. Note bulb replacements and battery swaps in the facilities log so the building manager can true up the maintenance schedule.

Refresh the EAP with current floor warden assignments, after-hours contacts for the managing partner and IT, and the off-site assembly point. Include a plan for protecting client files and trial exhibits during evacuation — wet boxes from sprinkler activation are a recurring post-event problem.

Coordinate with the building manager so the drill doesn't collide with a deposition or client meeting. Time the muster, note any attorney still on a phone call when the alarm sounds, and capture issues for the after-action report.

Document each issue, the responsible owner, and a remediation deadline. Circulate to the managing partner and floor wardens; loop the building manager in on anything tied to alarms, stairwells, or the assembly point.

Check each attorney and paralegal workstation for loose monitor arms, failing sit-stand actuators, and frayed power bricks. Replace anything that wobbles before it fails mid-deposition prep.

Conference rooms accumulate phone, HDMI, and laptop chargers between every Zoom hearing. Re-secure cable trays and replace any chewed-through extension cord — daisy-chained power strips under the war-room table are a code violation.

Industrial shredders cause the bulk of law-office injuries — neckties, sleeves, and ID lanyards. Verify every legal assistant and records clerk has signed the equipment training acknowledgment within the last 12 months.

Litigators reviewing depositions and transactional associates redlining 200-page agreements log the longest sustained desk hours. Adjust chair height, monitor distance, and keyboard tray for each, and flag any RSI complaints to HR for follow-up.

Push a calendar block or Outlook reminder for a five-minute break every hour during heavy drafting weeks (brief deadlines, closing weeks). Eye strain and wrist fatigue are the two most common complaints from associates billing 60-hour weeks.

Records clerks and paralegals routinely move 40-lb banker boxes during file open, file close, and trial prep. Cover proper lifting form, when to use the dolly, and the firm's two-person-lift threshold for heavier exhibit binders.

Match the locked file room and off-site Iron Mountain inventory against the matter list in the practice management system. Flag any matter past its retention date for destruction review and any closed matter still in the active drawer.

Conduct an after-hours walk-through. Privileged documents left on desks, conference room whiteboards with case names un-erased, and unlocked filing cabinets are Rule 1.6 confidentiality risks. Photograph violations for the audit record.

Hold a short refresher with named (anonymized) examples from the audit. Re-circulate the policy, log signed acknowledgments, and schedule a follow-up walk-through in 30 days. Repeat violations should escalate to the managing partner per the firm handbook.

Run a coordinated test with the monitoring company so a live signal isn't dispatched. Confirm the reception duress button reaches the monitoring desk and that after-hours arming codes for partners, associates, and cleaning crew are still active and unique.

Pull the access control export and compare against current employees and contract attorneys. Departed staff and finished contract attorneys should already be deactivated; any survivors are an off-boarding gap to fix today.

Confirm reception is logging every visitor with name, firm, host attorney, and timestamp, and that opposing parties and unrepresented witnesses sign the standard NDA before entering conference areas. Pull a sample of the prior month's logs as evidence for the audit file.