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Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance
Crisis Management<br />

Crisis Management

Building a resilient business

A crisis that threatens your company's reputation will strike even the best-managed business. But there is no certainty as to where the crisis will hit, or how far across the organisation it will reverberate.

Clifford Chance will help you implement an immediate, effective and flexible crisis response plan, to be deployed whenever and wherever a reputational crisis breaks.

We work with the world’s leading businesses to protect them against reputational exposure and guide them confidently through crises as they unfold, and as they restore their businesses.

Be clear on crisis management

5 questions to ask yourself

Do we know where a crisis could emerge from?

The political and media landscape is evolving quickly, as is society's tolerance of "big business" practices. Your company should constantly review its systems/culture against the latest demands of investors, politicians, lenders and customers. Areas of risk that used to be "compliance" risks are now reputational risks that need to be assessed at board level. Is your board taking a dynamic approach to reputational risk management?

Does our board fully understand the new emerging risks facing the business?

It is only when key current and future risks are understood by decision-makers that resources can be directed to the right risk areas, enabling risk management to be properly directed and embedded throughout the organisation. Are you sure that your board is on top of the breadth and depth of the new risk areas the company is facing so that it is not caught off-guard?

Is our board trained and fully briefed for a crisis?

When your company unexpectedly hits the news headlines for the wrong reasons, does the board have a full and up-to-date plan to put into action? Does it know who to call and how to take control? The first period of crisis management is the most important. It sets the tone and direction of future engagement and strategy, and can make the difference between a successful outcome and a reputational disaster.

Is our company's risk incident management plan water-tight?

When a risk incident or scandal breaks, the best start is knowing that there is a full internal team ready and trained to act immediately, with trusted advisers on hand to guide the organisation through the early stages of the crisis. All companies should have a plan covering what they would do if a crisis hits and implement dry runs of emergency scenarios to keep that plan current.

Do we live, learn and adapt?

Where a risk incident has a reputational impact, this presents an opportunity to reassess the systems, compliance controls and risk culture of the organisation, whilst improving its way of doing business, its way of dealing with issues and its approach to risk management. Does your board seek to learn from its experience and invest in implementing improvements in systems, processes and messages to the business?

Why Clifford Chance

We have extensive experience advising multinational organisations facing reputational crises. Our team brings together crisis management expertise, wide-ranging legal expertise, and the objective, big picture and "on our feet" thinking, necessary to set businesses on a clear path to resolution.

Meet our Crisis Management team

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David DiBari

David DiBari

Partner
Washington D.C.

+12029125098

David

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David D. DiBari is Clifford Chance's Global Co-Head of the Firm's Risk Team and the Americas Region Lead for the Regulatory Investigations and Financial Crime Group.

David has 35 years of experience in the crisis management and defending financial institutions and multi-national corporates in complex criminal and administrative matters arising under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, US banking and securities laws and regulations, US anti-money laundering , economic sanctions and export controls, and other laws and regulations affecting the conduct of international business. David has extensive experience in conducting multi-jurisdictional internal investigations and managing whistleblowers, and advising companies on developing and implementing cross-border risk assessments and compliance programs, systems and controls.

David has represented domestic and multi-national companies before the US Department of Justice, US Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Reserve, New York Department of Financial Services, Department of State, Department of Treasury, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, US Congress and other Federal and State authorities and SROs.

Luke Tolaini

Luke Tolaini

Partner
London

+442070064666

Luke

Luke Tolaini advises companies and their Boards on matters of reputational significance.

Working across sectors Luke advises on crisis incidents, investigations and material disputes, often involving government authorities. He is a co-lead of Clifford Chance's global Risk team advising clients on compliance, risk prevention, crisis management, and cultural remediation.

Heiner Hugger

Heiner Hugger

Partner
Frankfurt

+496971991283

Heiner

Heiner Hugger advises on investigations, legal proceedings, compliance and fraud-prevention measures and all other issues in connection with criminal, regulatory or other penalties.

Heiner has particular experience in defending against investigations against companies and their staff members, advising on internal investigations and on the prosecution of offences committed to the detriment of companies, as well as in advising companies on compliance and fraud-prevention measures.

Heiner is a member of our global risk leadership team.

Lei Shi

Lei Shi

Managing Partner, Mainland China
Shanghai

+862123207377

Lei

Lei Shi's practice focuses on China-related dispute resolution matters, including international arbitration, regulatory compliance and investigation, and commercial litigation.

In the arbitration area, Lei has over 12 years of experiences as counsel in arbitration under HKIAC, ICC, SIAC, CIETAC, LCIA, SCC, AAA and UNCITRAL Rules in relation to M&A, private equity, banking, technology, real property and other commercial disputes.