Event Report

On September 28th, The Legal 500 was honoured to host a roundtable discussion with Brown Rudnick on the role of the general counsel in crisis management. A number of multinational organizations’ general counsel and chief legal officers’ presence added depth to the discussion. Among the many topics explored, the best strategy for succeeding in both the court of public opinion and the court of law was closely examined. Partners at Brown Rudnick – Ben Chew, Camille Vasquez and Charlotte Harris, presided over the discussion and advised general counsel to keep on top of a growing crisis narrative and maintain a cooperative and cool demeanour. Additionally, they advised the best response to a crisis involved staying faithful to brand positioning and using inventive redirection techniques.  

Other interesting questions surfaced:  

• What kind of crises do general counsel fear?
• Is your response team well-coordinated?
• What is the relationship between the legal and crisis response teams, and how necessary is a crisis response/PR team?
• How significant is the truth, in times of a corporate crisis?
• Do you offer more information than is requested in a crisis or do you just respond? 

We thank Brown Rudnick for their partnership and facilitation of this discussion, as well as the general counsel present who made this discussion nothing short of lively.