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Reed Smith Partner Recounts a Frantic Search for Family in Mumbai

By Nathan Koppel

We’ve all been riveted and horrified by what’s going on India, but the terrorist attacks hit particularly close to home for Reed Smith partner Bradley Schmarak. On Wednesday afternoon, he learned that his aunt and uncle, Joe and Marilyn Ernsteen, were traveling in India and staying at the Taj Hotel in Mumbai (pictured). We caught up with Schmarak today, and he recounted the angst he went through until he learned Thursday morning that his relatives had survived the attacks.

He says that on Wednesday, when he heard the news, he reached out to the U.S. embassy and also to fellow partners at Reed Smith to see if they could help him get any information about whether his aunt and uncle were alive. Ajay Raju, who heads the firm’s India practice and has deep contacts in the country, started frantically calling business contacts in Mumbai. Raju says he even called a prominent art deal in New Delhi whom he knows, to see if he could offer any help locating the Ernsteens. But because Mumbai was then in a lockdown, he explains, it was impossible to get information.

Schmarak, an M&A and private equity lawyer, says he learned that his aunt and uncle were in their room when the terrorists entered the hotel. They faced a quandary: whether to hole up until the danger passed or to try to escape. If they left, he says, they faced running into the terrorists, Schmarak says, but if they stayed they ran the risk of getting engulfed in flames or smoke. They gathered their passport and headed out of the room, finding a fire escape that led to the roof. There, they found a safe army position and were later evacuated. One member of their tour group, Schmarak says, was shot and killed.

The Ernsteens are catching a flight that should get them back to Chicago tomorrow afternoon. “The entire extended family will meet them at airport,” he say. ” “My uncle videotaped a a lot, and he says he has material that CNN would drool over.”

Joe Ernsteen did not lose his sense of humor, Schmarak says, noting that he had sent his uncle an email earlier in the week noting the beating Schmarak was taking in the market and inquiring whether he should trade out of a certain position. “He wrote me back when they got out [of the hotel], ‘sorry it took me so long to get back you about the bullets you have taken in the stock market, but I have been dodging bullets of my own.”

Learning that his aunt and uncle were alive, he adds, “made for a truly joyous Thanksgiving. It makes you appreciate so many things.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on November 28, 2008 (boomark / email).