With our global partnership, wealth of government and investigative experience, and wide-ranging substantive experience, Cleary Gottlieb is especially well-equipped to counsel clients when an unexpected and destabilizing event threatens to lead to serious financial, reputational, regulatory or even criminal consequences.

Our lawyers are already in the places you are and need to be, and Cleary partners from our 16 international offices have experience seamlessly working together to manage a crisis of any scale.

Cleary lawyers have experience advising clients in multiple jurisdictions on how to navigate through a crisis—or how to avoid it altogether. We regularly counsel clients on the various inter-related elements that are common to most corporate crises:

  • Conducting internal investigations.
  • Advising on corporate governance and disclosure issues.
  • Dealing with law enforcement authorities.
  • Communicating with external auditors.
  • Addressing data security concerns.
  • Helping to develop media strategies.
  • Handling litigation.

Our substantive experience in areas such as antitrust, banking, corporate governance, cybersecurity, financial products, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, market abuse, money laundering, insider trading and tax supports our ability to handle many different types of crises. Additionally, we have experience in conducting investigations for Fortune 50 companies into allegations of workplace harassment, as well as advising a variety of public and private clients on human resources best practices, including the implementation of policies relating to harassment, whistleblowers, employee relations, termination and conflict resolution.

Cleary’s U.S. crisis management team includes 12 lawyers who served in senior capacities with the U.S. Department of Justice or the Securities and Exchange Commission. In Europe, our lawyers include former officials of the European Court of Justice, the General Court and the European Commission.

We offer clients one team, providing efficiency and speed anywhere in the world. Our global partnership—with offices in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Latin America—allows us to provide timely and coordinated advice for clients facing a crisis.

Notable Experience

  • BHP Billiton, Vale and Samarco in an investigation of the collapse of the Fundão tailings dam in the Minas Gerais region of Brazil.

  • Bosch in connection with investigations and civil litigation in the U.S. relating to the Volkswagen emissions matter.

  • Three major banks in various benchmark rate investigations spanning multiple continents.

  • Oberthur Technologies in an investigation by the World Bank in connection with possible bribery and collusion involving the Bangladeshi Election Commission.

  • Advising Petrobras in connection with SEC reporting, accounting, corporate governance and financing matters that arose as a result of Operation Carwash—reportedly the largest corruption scandal in Latin American history—and representing Petrobras, PGF, and current and former officers and directors in securities fraud class action litigation and 29 individual actions in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

  • Conducted an internal investigation and resolved civil litigation for a home appliance multinational after a whistleblower named the CFO in wrongdoing.

  • Conducted and concluded an internal investigation within weeks regarding bribery allegations against a maritime logistics company.

  • Asset freezing orders in the UK and Cyprus.

  • A major international bank after the Tokyo branch was raided by Japanese regulators.

  • The Republic of Argentina in connection with the restraint of the Argentine warship ARA Libertad in Ghana and the ultimate release of that vessel.

  • The province of Mendoza in blocking efforts to derail restructuring efforts with ex parte injunctions.

  • Defended against a shareholder derivative action against a board of directors of a Kazakhstan-based company.

  • An Italian company in connection with a bribery investigation in Northern Africa.

See More

Crisis Bulletin

See More

Publications

View All

Events

View All