Crisis Management

Today’s fast-paced and interconnected world presents a wide range of potential corporate crises that expose organizations to significant financial, regulatory enforcement and reputational risk. Rapid and effective counsel is critical to mitigating risk and managing consequences. The Paul Hastings Global Crisis Management practice helps clients address the most challenging crises — whenever and wherever in the world they occur.

We have extensive experience helping clients navigate high-stakes, cross-border crises, including data breaches and AI-driven challenges, technical and product failures, government investigations, environmental disasters, corporate misconduct, whistleblower allegations, shareholder activism, class action litigation, export control and multi-jurisdictional bribery and corruption scandals.

Central to managing these risks is the need to assemble – on short notice or no notice at all – a cross-disciplinary team capable of identifying the array of risks that a crisis presents, then formulating an integrated strategy that meets the client’s immediate and long-term needs. Our team includes high-level former government officials and prosecutors, experienced litigators, transactional and restructuring lawyers, and technical industry advisers based in the firm’s more than 20 global offices. With deep experience in the highest profile federal and state attorneys general investigations, our team has strong relationships with key regulatory agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Trade Commission, Office of Foreign Assets Control and global anti-corruption authorities, as well as in Congress and the media. Our skills and experience allow us to effectively navigate both criminal and civil litigation risks, respond to potential enforcement actions, mitigate regulatory scrutiny and advocate for clients facing government inquiries and compliance challenges.

Beyond legal or regulatory consequences, we recognize that reputational damage can be equally critical for our clients. Our team works closely with clients to manage media scrutiny, stakeholder communications and investor relations during high-profile crises and afterward. We collaborate with leading communications teams to develop messaging strategies that protect corporate reputation and restore stakeholder confidence.

Recognitions

• Compliance Practice Group of the Year – Law360 2020, 2022 and 2023

• Employment Practice Group of the Year – Law360 2024

• Ranked “Elite” for Litigation: General Commercial – Chambers USA

• Ranked Band 1 for Nationwide FCPA and Corporate Crime & Investigations – Chambers USA

• Ranked Band 1 for Nationwide Environment and in California, the District of Columbia and Texas – Chambers USA

• Ranked Band 1 for Nationwide Labor and Employment Law – Chambers USA

• Ranked Band 2 for Nationwide Privacy & Data Security – Chambers USA

• Recognized in the top 15 of “The GIR 30” – Global Investigations Review

• Ranked for Securities Regulation: Enforcement – Brad Bondi - Chambers USA

• Recognized as “White Collar National MVP” – Brad Bondi – Law360 (2019, 2021, 2022)

• Recognized as “White Collar National MVP” – Bob Luskin – Law360 (2020)

What the Market is Saying

Client Successes

• Airbus – Served as lead U.S. counsel in a worldwide (26 countries) investigation, conducted jointly by the DOJ, France and the U.K., into alleged corruption in the sale of commercial aircraft and other matters. This matter resulted in the largest simultaneous resolution in the history of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, with U.S., French and U.K. regulators.

• Warner Bros - Defended Warner Bros. in a major class action alleging that participants in Warner Bros. and MGM motion pictures were improperly paid royalties on the exploitation of motion pictures in various home video formats.

• BP – Represented BP as lead counsel in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Natural Resource Damages matters relating to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, overseeing all legal and evidentiary aspects.

• Tesla – Represented Tesla in various government investigations, including those relating to Elon Musk’s take-private tweet.