Nothing signals the onset of recession like the combination of the words, disputes, debt recovery and fraud."
Together with Winmark, we recently asked GCs and in-house Legal teams about their expectations for the year ahead. The majority predicted that, as a result of the economic downturn, their workload will feature more Litigation, Debt Recovery and Fraud issues, while they also expect an increase in internal requests for legal support alongside employment disputes and HR compliance matters.
It is clear that 2023 will be challenging, and GCs may wish to assess how ready their teams are to deal with these issues by asking themselves seven key questions:
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Fraud: how might we identify a fraud and its perpetrators, and what actions should we take to mitigate impact and recover losses? How do we inform our stakeholders or deal with media interest in the fraud or subsequent litigation?
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Investigations: what should we do to protect the organisation and its executives from internal or external investigations? What arrangements should we have in place to investigate fraud or misconduct (internal or external) in order to protect the organisation and optimise any results?
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Disputes: are we sufficiently resourced to pursue the claims we need to and deal with issues in a commercial way. Are we prepared to robustly defend unmeritorious claims against us?
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Compliance: how do we effectively comply with reporting requirements e.g. around money laundering, whilst protecting our rights and reputation?
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Debts: what tools are at our disposal to maximise recoveries from debtors who might be unwilling or unable to repay monies owed?
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Credits: where and how might we legitimately seek to extricate ourselves from contracts that have become loss-making or untenable?
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Restructuring: how might we best undertake any necessary employee restructuring whilst protecting our business and its reputation?
Read more about our survey and its findings here.
Louise Hodges
Criminal Litigation
Financial Regulatory Litigation
White collar crime
Partner and Head of Department
