Balancing local and regional regulations in a global business

A case of reputation, reputation, reputation

What happens when you launch a product worldwide and find that it does not comply with the regulations in half of Europe? This is a danger in-house lawyers face, as Mary Mullally found at the fifth Martindale-Hubbell Counsel-to-Counsel forum. Read more...

Forum summary

Key points

• The greatest impact of non-compliance is the damage to the brand. Even if you fight regulators and win, the damage to the business in media coverage may be irreparable.
• There should be a business wide approach to how to deal with challenges to regulatory and compliance issues - confrontation or softly-softly through lobbying and communication.
• Communication with business is key and the external lawyers must be aware of commercial implications of challenges.
• Lawyers should maintain independence while working closely with the business.
• It is important to be focused on regulatory developments while acknowledging that you cannot keep up with everything.
• External advisers do have a role to play in local law but in-house counsel do not want to be bombarded with documentation.
• Train and educate the business on the implications of failing to comply.