Case Study – Managing Legacy-Driven Regulatory & Litigation Risk

One of the largest chemical producers in the world faced multidimensional reputation risk brought on by both legacy and acquired businesses. The company engaged our cross-border, multi-disciplinary team to provide reputation and issues management strategies for site-specific crises both in the US and Asia, site contamination issues from previous acquisitions, ongoing class action litigation communications support, and regulatory and policy communications. 

While production and active use of our client’s chemistries has waned substantially, questions remain about the synthetic compound’s presence in the environment and its potential impact on human health. Increased litigation has driven increased regulation and public calls to establish a maximum contaminant level for, or outright ban on, the substance that is a byproduct of chemical manufacturing of hundreds of consumer, commercial, and industrial products. 

Our client faced multiple class action lawsuits; lawsuits initiated by a state attorneys general; increasing regulatory actions at municipal, state, and federal jurisdictions; and enterprise reputation risk that, when coupled with other threats, jeopardized its reputation as a global leader.  

Our Impact

We developed and deployed issues management strategies for the client to protect its reputation throughout the litigation cycle. Our work included media relations, targeted amplification to niche audiences, policy and regulatory engagement, scenario planning and messaging, and operational readiness planning around key legal milestones.