Global Crisis Management Handbook

It is with great pleasure that we welcome you to the Fourth Edition of our Global Crisis Management Handbook. Following years in which every organization continued to grapple with the effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic, along with recent bank failures, war, natural disasters, and an impending climate crisis, the importance of effective crisis management has never been more apparent. All of these crises have presented businesses with an array of unprecedented commercial, operational, and people challenges, with all the attendant regulatory, governance, management, cyber, public relations, and other risks.

Companies operating in this globalized, regulated, and litigious environment face unexpected and potentially destabilizing events that are likely to play out in the public eye and which may necessitate dealing with regulators, criminal enforcement authorities, and private claimants across multiple jurisdictions. Such events can take many forms, from large-scale law enforcement, regulatory, or government investigations, to natural or man-made disasters, to scandals involving senior executives. What differentiates these crises from more standard events is their level of unpredictability, potentially vast scope, and risk to a business due to both legal exposure and a loss of confidence from the public and other key stakeholders. Addressing a crisis calls for a multidisciplinary approach, including advance planning and a coordinated strategy to address legal and public relations issues in the face of concurrent scrutiny from enforcement authorities, regulators, the press, and the public.

In the past, enforcement and regulatory interest was more likely to be confined to events occurring in a physical jurisdiction or the home jurisdiction of a particular company. However, law enforcement and regulatory agencies now increasingly view their remit as more globalized—a phenomenon that has been enhanced by technology, the increased speed and reach of news, regulatory competition and coordination, and a sharper focus on cross-border rights and responsibilities (in the field of data privacy, for example). These factors are often coupled with public pressure for law enforcement and regulatory authorities to hold perceived “bad actors” accountable. A company must be prepared to provide answers to many interested parties across multiple jurisdictions in real time, frequently while the company itself is still establishing the facts.

Please see this issue’s full table of contents below. To request a PDF copy of the Handbook, click here.