Risk, Reputation & Crisis Management
When faced with a major crisis, our clients turn to our Risk, Reputation, and Crisis Management team for strategic guidance. We have counseled public and private companies, current and former government officials, colleges and universities, and company executives in high-stakes matters involving significant legal, business, and reputational risk.
We have experience responding to a variety of issues, including whistleblower accusations, allegations of discriminatory practices or other misconduct, fraud or other criminal activity, cyber breaches and ransomware, alleged questionable business conduct, shareholder disputes, Congressional inquiries, regulatory requests for information, subpoenas, threatened litigation, and other complex and fast-paced problems.
We draw on our diverse and multi-disciplinary experiences to address complex and high-profile challenges. Our team includes former executives and general counsel of global public companies, former federal and state prosecutors, and a former judge, as well as individuals who served in senior positions at the White House, several U.S. Attorney’s offices, the Department of Justice, and various state and local government offices. We have the knowledge, the skills, and the relationships necessary to respond quickly and mitigate damage.
We help prepare for when a crisis occurs.
Before a crisis hits, we work to assess potential risks and propose mitigation strategies in a non-emergency setting. We create board and company enterprise risk management (ERM) policies and processes that ensure company directors are fulfilling their duty to shareholders. We work with a company’s board, its executive teams, and its auditors to ensure that the company’s processes are robust yet user-friendly. We develop crisis response plans that address all aspects of the potential crisis, and we help companies test these plans through tabletop exercises.
Crises are volatile and complex. We guide our clients through them.
When a crisis develops, we hit the ground running. We help clients select their crisis response team and assist in gathering the key facts. Our media-savvy lawyers routinely work closely with skilled public relations and crisis management experts to help execute a public-facing strategy. If our clients need to communicate with the government, we have relationships with a multitude of federal, state, and local regulators and elected officials, and maintain deep ties with prosecutors’ offices across the country. We have extensive experience in the C-suite and the boardroom, and we know how to skillfully manage various stakeholders as the crisis develops. We work with our clients to enable them to maintain day-to-day business operations prudently but productively with minimal interruption while managing and mitigating the crisis. Post-crisis, we help lead the company through a “lessons learned” process to strengthen cultural, structural, technical, or other control weaknesses.
We manage contingencies that develop from a crisis.
If a crisis leads to litigation, a regulatory inquiry, a government enforcement action, or a Congressional investigation, we leverage our other practice groups to preserve our clients’ legal options and long-term goals. Our team of litigators and trial attorneys excel in the courtroom, and we are not afraid to go on the offensive to protect our clients’ rights. Our well-recognized White Collar Criminal Defense and Investigations team regularly helps our clients prevent, defend, and resolve all manner of government inquiries, investigations, and enforcement actions. No matter how a crisis may develop, we know clients care about legal matters primarily as business matters, and we work hard to protect our clients’ brands, reputations, and bottom lines.