World Trade Center law firm's staff escape crash horror

Early reports from top US firm Sidley Austin Brown & Wood - which has its New York office actually in the World Trade Center - were that all personnel were evacuated safely before the towers collapsed following Tuesday's terrorist attack.The firm - a top five US practice with more than 1,300 lawyers and revenues of almost $700 million - was created recently through the merger of Chicago's Sidley & Austin and New York's Brown & Wood.A statement from the firm less than four hours after the first jet hit the towers said: 'Based on the information currently available to us, we understand that all of our personnel in the World Trade Center were evacuated safely.'As a result of the 'tragic events', the firm closed all of its offices.Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton's office is very close to the World Trade Center.

The London office was reporting that the New York base had been evacuated but that nobody was said to be hurt.Other firms in the vicinity include Wall Street giant Sullivan & Cromwell and Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy.Neil Rose