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CCCA_V2No2_Coping-FIN.qxd:CCCA_V1No1_DriversSeat-FIN.qxd 5/1/08 2:35 PM Page 30 Feature Your company’s laptop battery is exploding. Gigabytes of customer data have gone missing. Someone has leaked a copy of your latest children’s bestseller. Corporate counsel are command central for crisis management, and there’s never been more pressure on them to get the company’s response right. Here’s a seven-step disaster response guide. Coping with catastrophe By Julie Stauffer hortly after the massive blackout of 2003 shut down much of Ontario and the northeastern United States, Scott Bates’s telephone rang. It Swas one of those calls that corporate counsel dread: when the power went out, he was informed, a company plant may have leaked toxic chemi- cals into the St. Clair River. “You sort of get that hole in the bottom of your stomach,” recalls the general counsel of Royal Group Inc., a subsidiary of Georgia Gulf Corporation. Leaving a darkened Toronto behind, Bates and the company’s media spokesperson raced to the site of the Sarnia, Ontario spill to deal with regulators, media, and a community facing the possibility of contaminated drinking water. Like any good boy scout, organizations should be prepared for fortune’s slings and arrows, whether they take the form of a toxic spill, accusations of insider trading, loss of confidential data, on-the-job injuries, or a million and one other possible disasters. Corporate reputation, sales, customer loyalty, and stock price all hang in the balance. According to a recent PriceWaterhouseCoopers survey,nearly half of U.S.- based multinationals suffered a high-level crisis between 2003 and 2006 — that is, an event significant enough to have a catastrophic impact on at least one major business unit or process. Doing business has always carried risks, but today, a number of factors have ISTOCKPHOTO driven the odds higher than ever. In the globalized economy, supply chains 30 CCCA Canadian Corporate Counsel Association SUMMER 2008