Crisis Management – the First 48hrs

When a crisis erupts, the first 24 to 48 hours are critical for a company. Two leading crisis management attorneys explain how to prepare for success. Crises may arise in many possible ways: an arrest of a C-suite executive, law enforcement raids, allegations of serious misconduct at company events, viral media stories or social media posts, cyberattacks, or natural disasters. Olivia Radin and Kimberly Zelnick, partners at the global law firm Freshfields, discuss how to approach a crisis from day one and the key issues to consider, including identifying the stakeholders, setting a plan for leadership, preserving documents, preparing mitigation measures, and making statements to the public and regulatory authorities. ► http://www.talksonlaw.com for more legal explainers and interviews with the titans of law. ► Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/talksonlaw ► Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/talksonlaw ► Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/talksonlaw ► TalksOnLaw does not provide legal advice. Learn more here: https://www.talksonlaw.com/briefs#about_tol_briefs_tol_is_not_your_lawyer ____________________ Interview with Risk Management and Crisis Management attorneys – Olivia Radin and Kimberly Zelnick (redacted) Host: What are some of the basic strategies or the framework that you like to give as companies are addressing crisis management? KZ: So you want to identify who your key stakeholders are: which regulators are going to be interested in this, are your banks going to be asking questions, your customers, your shareholders, maybe your boards of directors? But who are the people who are going to be asking and what are you going to be telling them? Second, you want to know who's in charge: who's going to be leading this investigation? That's important to determine on day one. OR: You also want to identify your regulatory notifications, and this will vary based on jurisdiction. If you're operating in more than one country that's relevant to the conduct at issue, you want to think about, in each country and for each regulator because multiple regulators can be involved in each country, what your notification obligations and expectations might be. And following on from that, you also want to ensure you have consistent messaging. You certainly can't say inconsistent things to different regulators or different stakeholders, but you also may decide to approach a regulator or another stakeholder who you wouldn't otherwise approach because your hands are tied elsewhere. So for example, if you're operating in multiple jurisdictions and you're obligated to make a report in one jurisdiction, that usually means that you should make a report in all jurisdictions. Host: And one more before we let you go, some mistakes to avoid, how about some don'ts? KZ: Well first, do not investigate without knowing the local rules. So don't just start conducting witness interviews in jurisdictions where you don't know whether that's allowed. Don't just start grabbing people's data if you don't know what the data protection rules are. You need to know what the rules are in wherever it is that you're investigating before you just go in and start conducting an investigation. The second is when you're talking to a regulator, do not, do not overpromise and then underdeliver. So we see this all the time. There's a desire to say we're gonna do this right away, we're gonna get back to you next week, we're gonna get back to you tomorrow. You don't need to do that a lot of times. You just take your time, take a breath and just, we'll get back to you when we can, we'll keep you updated, and just take it as it comes because it's a marathon, it's not a sprint. OR: So a couple of other don'ts. Don't give in to the pressure in the first few days or even months and make knee-jerk public statements about what did or didn't happen. The truth of the matter is that the company won't have a good factual basis to evaluate that for some time. That's a really hard truth to live with, but it's the reality, and you really don't want to put the company on the record in what we call, you know, the public square saying this did or didn't happen when you just haven't done the work yet to know. Another really important don't in the world of investigations is, you know, don't create documents that add to the problem. When you're investigating, you know, think very carefully about what you put down on paper. These are complicated, nuanced situations, and so be careful about the shorthand you use. For example, when you're taking notes or when you're drafting a memoranda, make sure that you're including enough nuance to reflect the nuance that exists in the factual record and that you're not creating admissions that don't otherwise exist.