The horrible fire in an Oakland warehouse doubling as a music venue has likely claimed a rising legal mind as a victim. It has been reported that Nicolas Walrath has been missing since the fire claimed at least 33 lives Friday, December 2, and many believe he died in the incident.
Nick Walrath graduated from New York University School of Law in 2013. He was an NYU Law Review editor and a former Cravath summer, and he had also worked at Quinn Emmanuel. He’d also clerked with the Ninth Circuit and the Northern District of California. He was currently working at the San Francisco boutique firm Durie Tangri. The firm released this statement regarding the loss of Walrath:
On the evening of December 2nd, a fire in an Oakland music venue claimed many lives. We believe that Nick Walrath was among those who died. We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of our friend and colleague. In the short time he had been at our firm, Nick already had shown himself to be a fine lawyer as well as a good and caring person. Our thoughts are with his family and his loved ones, who had been blessed to know Nick far better than we had the chance to, and whose loss is thus so much greater than our own.
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Officials have confirmed 33 dead in the fire, but the death toll is expected to rise. Walrath is not among those confirmed dead, but due to the extensive damage, CNN is reporting that confirmation for all of the victims may take weeks:
The recovery search would be long and arduous as firefighters work to remove debris “literally bucket by bucket in a methodical, thoughtful, mindful and compassionate way,” Oakland battalion Fire Chief Melinda Drayton said.
“We had firefighters with basically coveralls and buckets and shovels taking bits of debris out into the vacant lot to be loaded into dump trucks and removed to an off-site location,” she said.
Our thoughts are with the family and friends of this rising legal mind.
Oakland fire victims were young, creative, enjoying life [Orange County Register]
Warehouse fire: 33 bodies found; 70% of building still to be searched [CNN]
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Kathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).