By John Hicks

SAN ANTONIO, Texas. — It's been nearly eight years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and though we all still remember the horror of that day, many of us aren’t operating with the same sense of vigilance that we had in the days and months following the attack. But a recent symposium in Houston, hosted by a leading center studying terrorism and terrorism law issues, discussed why and how businesses should think about and prepare for the real possibility of a terrorist attack.

On April 30 and May 1, 2009, the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary’s University School of Law, San Antonio, Texas, hosted business executives and lawyers at the Federal Reserve Bank in Houston for the “Terrorism, Crime and Business” symposium. The symposium concentrated on premises liability and actions that businesses can take to limit their liability in the wake of a possible terrorist attack, as well as helping the audience understand the true nature of the terrorist threat to this country.

“The dangers of terrorism, cyber attacks, and criminal activity have very real legal repercussions for American businesses that can be as damaging, or more damaging, than those initial attacks,” said Jeffrey Addicott, Distinguished Professor of Law and director of the Center for Terrorism Law. “The symposium was designed to make companies aware of how to physically and legally safeguard themselves from liability.”

The symposium welcomed keynote addresses from Martin Beirne of the law firm Beirne, Maynard and Parsons, L.L.P., Houston and Dallas; Wade Battles, the acting executive director of the Port of Houston Authority; and the Hon. Michael McCaul, U.S. Representative for Texas’ 10th District.

Beirne spoke about general liability issues that businesses need to be aware of and how the increase in terrorist threats around the world affects those issues. Battles talked about the impact on the American economy of the Port of Houston, as the largest port in the United States in terms of foreign tonnage, and the many security concerns inherent in that. Rep. McCaul delivered a speech detailing the many things that he has seen and issues he has worked on as the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, Science and Technology.

Other prominent speakers included Prof. Addicott, who underlined the conceptual foundations of terrorism, as well as what businesses can do to help mitigate some of the legal liability associated with terrorism. Offer Baruch, vice president of operations for International Shield Inc. and former director of counter-intelligence for the Israeli Counter Terrorism Task Force, helped the audience truly understand the foundations and history of militant Islam, as well as what their future goals are and how they intend to achieve them.

Complementing Mr. Baruch’s presentation was former FBI Special Agent James Conway’s talk about terrorism closer to home. Conway focused on Houston’s status, as designated by Congress, as one of the top five terrorist targets in the nation. This designation, placing Houston in a group with Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C., is based on factoring in a city’s potential economic and symbolic targets, including oil and gas, transportation, communication, banking and finance, government services, water supply, energy, and other key critical and symbolic targets. Conway pointed out in his presentation that Houston has targets in all nine categories.

The symposium also hosted a panel discussion on the legal and security benefits of the SAFETY Act. This panel included Bruce Davidson, deputy director of the Office of SAFETY Act Implementation, Science and Technology Directorate, Department of Homeland Security. Davidson was able to clarify what exactly the SAEFTY Act was intended to do, as well as the SAFETY Act process.

Peter Conner, a principal with the Spectrum Group, was able to provide a real-life example of a company, North American Rescue, currently going through the process. The panel’s final member, Fern O’Brien, a partner with Arnold and Porter, expounded on the importance of understanding premises liability, as well as what companies can do to limit that liability.

Hand in hand with understanding terror threats to the United States is knowing that cyber attacks are at the forefront of the battlefield. Jody Westby, CEO of Global Cyber Risk, explained what the current cyber risk is and what companies can do to help mitigate it, in addition to which security standards companies should maintain.

The symposium then took a step out of the cyber world and its threats and into the physical world. The CEO of Armor Designs, Charles Snyder, talked about physical security innovations and actions that companies can take to help decrease their security breaches.

Overall, the symposium provided a wealth of information for company executives, security chiefs, and lawyers on how to increase their physical and cyber security efforts to help mitigate liability in the event of a terrorist attack.

John T. Hicks is a second-year law student at St. Mary's University School of Law and is the Executive Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary's. He is also a firefighter with the city of San Antonio and is pursuing a Master of Arts in International Relations with a concentration in security policy.

[Ed.: PDF files of the conference prestentations are available here.]