An emergency, such as a spill, explosion, derailment, significant employee injury, or building collapse, can have a tremendous impact on a business, not only right after the event, but potentially for years to come. It can temporarily shut down the business or otherwise disrupt operations, cause physical damage, tarnish the organization’s public image, and impact employees.
It’s not a matter of if, but when an incident will occur. The critical factor is how the business responds. A company must be prepared to answer key questions:
- Are we adequately prepared?
- Do we have an internal team ready to take the necessary steps to safeguard employees, operations, and customers?
- Do we have a media plan?
- Do we know which federal and state agencies we must coordinate with?
Preparation is key to thinking clearly without incident pressure during an emergency. Having a solid plan in place is critical and can provide a roadmap. While it is nearly impossible to foresee all aspects of an incident, identifying emergency response team members and preparing communication templates and an action checklist in advance enables the company to effectively respond and protect its employees, customers, and reputation.
How We Can Help
Our multidisciplinary team’s combined knowledge of environmental, construction, product liability, employment, transportation, and labor laws and regulations enables them to provide strategic guidance on preparing for and responding to events that can cause sleepless nights. We are well-versed in crisis response and accident investigation and regularly conduct investigations and address regulatory citations and enforcement actions involving the NTSB, EPA, DEC, OSHA, FRA, and other government agencies.
Our team is on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week and available to respond to an incident site immediately to help bring a situation under control and establish productive working relationships with parties including investigatory agencies, insurance companies, legal claimants, and employees.
Our services include:
- Developing crisis response and accident investigation procedures and checklists to prepare companies to respond to emergencies promptly and appropriately.
- Conducting a business impact analysis focused on business continuity in a crisis.
- Educating executive teams on when and how often procedures need to be reviewed and practiced to ensure an effective response during an emergency.
- Ensuring that proper personnel are directing investigations and that communications are protected by the attorney-client privilege where appropriate.
- Assisting in responding to subpoenas.
- Providing guidance on environmental release reporting obligations during a release crisis.
- Offering strategic support when dealing with the media in high-profile cases to minimize adverse publicity and corporate crisis.
- Training employees on best practices for conducting an internal investigation or responding to a catastrophic accident to limit exposure to liability, including how to implement stress tests and drills.
- Planning for worst-case scenarios in light of unique geographic factors (e.g., susceptibility to flooding, hurricanes, earthquakes, fires, or other natural disasters).
- Providing guidance on responding to legal actions or post-event claim citations, fines, or other adverse rulings.
- Counseling on responding to agency enforcement actions such as those under the Administrative Procedure Act or Hazardous Materials Transportation Act.
