The general counsel should lead crisis planning in a company, or at least be an integral part of the planning and the crisis management team, advised attorney Jennifer Bergenfeld in a webinar offered Tuesday.

“If the general counsel is left out, it is very confusing,” warned Bergenfeld, a former in-house counsel at several companies, including general counsel of EMG Investment Services. She now teaches business law and professional responsibility at New York University’s Stern School of Business.

“The general counsel also can add a lot of value, either as the spokesperson during the crisis or just by making sure any disclosure is reviewed and approved to avoid misinformation in the marketplace,” Bergenfeld added.

The webinar was one of a series offered by GC Briefs, an e-learning company for general counsel.

In this installment, the law professor discussed several real-life company scenarios, including:

  • The 2003 Eastern Seaboard power outage left thousands in the dark from Canada to Virginia; she talked of how her company handled it.
  • The CEO of one company in the United Kingdom suddenly quit for family reasons and returned to the U.S.
  • Regulators launched an unexpected multi-jurisdictional investigation into a company.
  • Authorities entered the workplace and arrested one CEO for insider trading, just as the company was preparing to go public.
  • Superstorm Sandy created many corporate crises in the Northeast last year, and she discussed how one company endangered its employees by forcing them to come to work that day in downtown Manhattan.

Bergenfeld said companies need to specify the type of situation that would trigger the crisis team, and outline what the specific impact of each crisis could be—governmental, business, legal or public relations.

She recommended staffing a crisis with key personnel and leaders chosen in advance for each type of event, and being prepared to replace any key person who gets taken out by the emergency itself.

Companies also need to plan a way to secure the people, data, clients and the crisis plan itself by determining who and what will be affected in a crisis and how best to protect them.

Finally, she said speaking to employees, regulators, stakeholders—such as clients, suppliers and shareholders—and the media needs to be done by a designated person, with the general counsel reviewing the message to assure all regulatory and contractual obligations are met. And definitely don’t wait until a crisis occurs to get to know your public relations person or media representatives.

Bergenfeld encouraged modeling, testing and training on all plans, and updating the plan at least once a year.

And she offered a warning to GCs who might want to be the company’s sole crisis manager.

“The general counsel shouldn’t become the only one responsible,” Bergenfeld advised GCs. “Don’t take on more than you can handle. You do the legal and regulatory parts, and let the business departments handle the business aspects.”