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Risk and Resilience

 

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The challenges organisations face today are clear: geopolitical uncertainty, increasing rules, over-lapping regulations, heightened scrutiny by investors and the public in general, and technological disruption, to name a few. Risk management has become more important than ever, and the duty of this extends beyond an organisation’s risk function and the in-house legal team to senior management and the board itself.

For too many organisations, risk has become shorthand for compliance and a fear of exposure to regulatory enforcement and reputational damage.

We see risks and opportunities as two sides of the same coin and support organisations in identifying, managing and mitigating strategic risks in order to make decisions that help their business innovate, grow and succeed.

Our multi-disciplinary Risk and Resilience team delivers solutions to address your commercial, regulatory and governance challenges to help you secure the long-term sustainability of your organisation.

Our cross-border risk and resilience team can help you:

Implement
Review and monitor
Mitigate and respond
The range of our work
Deliver better oversight, accountability and transparency

We work with our clients to establish robust and adaptable governance, risk management and compliance solutions. Our lawyers have extensive experience advising clients on risk assessments and audits, governance models, advice to boards, reporting requirements and public statements, codes of conduct. We provide integrated and holistic advice that covers antitrust, M&A due diligence, data security and privacy, sanction, anti-bribery and corruption, anti-money laundering, environmental law, employment, financial regulation and human rights.

Build a more resilient culture

Organisations are constantly reacting to and recovering from disruptions. Few of these become existential crises, but many test a business’s resilience. We help our clients ensure that they have the flexibility to respond to opportunities as well as adverse or changing circumstances. 

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Withstand a crisis

Our cross-disciplinary crisis management team has unparalleled experience in handling some of the most significant and high-profile crises confronting corporates of the last few years. We can mobilise immediately to respond to the particular issues you are facing, offering you the support you need, wherever you need it, fitting into your crisis management team and collaborating with your other advisers. As we move beyond the initial response, we advise you on internal investigations, regulatory enforcement and investigations, and potential litigation involving claimants or defendants.

Find out more about our Crisis Management team.

Our global Risk and Resilience team delivers solutions that help clients protect against or adapt to short-term and long-term change. We have the expertise to support clients through the various dimensions of risk including:

Enterprise risk

Changes to the commercial, legal and societal landscape have meant that organisations are faced with increasingly complex and interconnected challenges, risks and opportunities. Many of those changes, in turn, have resulted in governments, shareholders, consumers, employees and other stakeholders placing a greater emphasis on governance, oversight, accountability, transparency, compliance and earning a “social license to operate”.

We assist our clients in identifying, evaluating and managing risks at the enterprise level across their business in this challenging commercial landscape.

Risk and resilience

Regulatory risk for corporates

Organisations are facing a maze of ever-increasing rules and overlapping regulations impacting a growing number of areas within their businesses.

As governments and public opinion have pushed for increasing amounts of legislation regulators have responded. They are reaching further to bring organisations to task for failing to comply with their obligations and foresee risk. Regulatory violations are increasingly no longer tolerated by customers and other key stakeholders who now see such failings squarely as a threat to a company’s reputation and value.

Having a culture and system that embeds and reinforces the importance of compliance with international and local regulatory requirements has become business-critical. Our approach goes beyond ensuring legal and regulatory compliance and mitigating identified risks.

Our people are experts in constant dialogue and engagement with wide cross section of key stakeholders across industry, supranationals, government, agencies, think-tanks and academics. We advise on best practice, policies, culture and ethics, in the boardroom or throughout an entire organisation. 

Cyber risk

High-profile cyber security incidents are being reported in the press with increasing regularity and cyber risk is quickly rising up the board agenda. We have one of the longest-standing privacy and cyber security teams in Europe and have been advising clients since the inception of data protection laws more than 20 years ago. 

Find out more about our Cyber Risk team.

 

We advise clients on:
  • Effective cyber crisis preparedness – through training, incident response planning, and risk management strategies.
  • Governance and resilience arrangements – helping clients review and put appropriate governance structures in place.
  • Crisis management in response to a hack or serious cyber incident – from supporting internal investigations and advising on securing and recovering data to advising on the board and management’s reporting responsibilities and liaising with regulators and law enforcement officials.

Risk advisory for financial services

The landscape of financial regulation is hugely complex as the wave of new rules responding to the global financial crisis has only recently started to ease. As we move into a new regulatory phase, the ability of financial services firms to manage legal and regulatory risks proactively becomes increasingly important. 

Our risk advisory team draws on experience from our financial regulation and contentious regulatory practices to help large financial institutions evaluate sources of risk and determine what good compliance practice looks like.

Find out more about our regulatory risk advisory team

Explore our client services related to Risk and Resilience

Our risk and resilience lawyers work across a number of areas of potential risk:

Guides

Modern Slavery Update

As the UK Modern Slavery Act enters its second year, we look at how the Commissioner’s first report places private sector engagement as one of its top priorities.

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The regulatory landscape is shifting

Regulatory-driven risk management has become an absolute priority for major organisations across the world. We provide a unique insight into the impact of rising regulation by combining the views of influential regulators, leading global corporations and some of Linklaters’ most experienced regulatory experts.

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Human rights risks and impacts

What are the key building blocks for an effective human rights compliance and risk management programme?

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Guide for General Counsel on Corporate Sustainability

Together with The United Nations Global Compact, and with guidance from an Advisory Group of General Counsel, we have prepared a Guide for General Counsel on Corporate Sustainability.

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Managing supply chain risks: human rights considerations

We look at the growing awareness of human rights risks and how emerging 'hard' and 'soft' laws in this area are changing the way that clients are monitoring and managing their supply chain risks.

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Managing whistleblowing in the workplace

We outline the key protections provided to whistleblowers under the law, together with some practical tips for managing whistleblowing at work, including where Employment Tribunal ensues.

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Taking Stock

A review of anti-bribery and corruption law and enforcement across the globe.

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The General Data Protection Regulation

Our survival guide to navigating the Regulation, including answers to frequently asked questions, useful checklists and everything else you need to get to grips with this new law.

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Ethics in Banking and Finance

Our joint report with UK Finance explores ethics in banking and finance

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Key Contacts
Get in touch with a member of our Risk and Resilience team