Protecting Against Supply Chain Disruption Risks

Lawyers and in-house lawyers in particular have a crucial role to play in protecting their clients/companies from supply chain disruption risks. While many of the lessons learned from COVID-related supply chain disruptions help in providing a framework, simply duplicating them is unlikely to be sufficient.

There are a number of areas which we suggest considering to help protect against supply chain risks:

1. Re-visit current contractual clauses

Re-visit current contractual clauses to ensure they cover current perceived risks: generic force majeure clauses utilised during the COVID-19 pandemic may not adequately cover the nuances of geopolitical risks. Lawyers should review and customise those clauses based on the specific risks that could affect their supply chain such as war, sanctions, export controls and specific regional instabilities. It is important to clearly define what constitutes a force majeure event and the obligations of both parties under