Quarterbacking A Crisis

With Super Bowl LII looming this weekend, it seemed an apt time to reflect on the role of external counsel ‘quarterbacking’ a crisis response in the product liability realm.

In some cases, manufacturers with a deep, veteran legal department can (and do!) manage their own crisis response with the benefit of specialized teams and integrated corporate resources like insurance personnel, a PR department and employee relations staff.  External counsel, to the extent they are required at all, can provide some of the heavy lifting of client-directed regulatory response and, if necessary, litigation.

In other cases, though, external counsel are relied upon to provide guidance not only in staffing the client’s needs, but in identifying them. Among many other things, external counsel are relied upon for our network of contacts and our knowledge of the multifaceted procedure a manufacturer is required to follow in as short a time as 48 hours after the report of a product