Investigation and Crisis Management
Our Investigation and Crisis Management team provides comprehensive assistance to companies facing crisis situations and investigations typically this might be the discovery of, or allegations of, employee or director wrongdoing, the threat of, or actual, regulatory investigation. For example allegations of collusion, market manipulation, bribery, sanctions breaches, employee theft or misconduct, including harassment allegations., We can conduct an independent privileged fact-finding exercise, provide strategic advice and handle regulatory authorities across multiple jurisdictions.
Non-compliance with laws and regulations can expose businesses to criminal and civil liability, and have huge detrimental reputational consequences. We assist private and public entities in preventing and detecting corruption and other economic crime or misconduct in Norway, the UK and internationally.
In a crisis scenario, we provide prompt and efficient assistance, assessing risk exposure and the need for preventive measures or damage control, advising on strategic and operational crisis management, and liaising with relevant regulators / public authorities. Our experience spans different types of investigations, including acting as counsel to companies under investigation, investigators in fact-finding exercises and external independent investigators. Our team is also experienced in white collar crime defence if this is called for.
Our crisis management team operates from our headquarters in Oslo throughout Norway, and has extensive experience acting on global investigations. We also have a team of experienced crisis management lawyers in our other offices including London, Singapore and Shanghai.
We offer
- Handling cross-border crisis management cases and investigations
- Liaising with authorities across multiple jurisdictions
- Investigating potential misconduct
- Strategic and operational crisis management
- Follow-up and investigation of whistleblowing reports
- Establish a project organization to handle crises
- Coordination of resources across disciplines
- Project management of crisis teams involving external and internal resources
- Assessing and advising on corporate criminal liability exposure
- Acting as external independent investigators
- Acting as counsel to companies under investigation
- Assessing risk exposure and need for immediate preventive measures
- Acting in civil or criminal court proceedings
- Post-crisis clean-up
See our other Compliance areas
Compliance Update
In our Compliance Update we provide our readers with information and updates on current topics in ethics, compliance and crisis management. Enjoyable reading!
Read our articles on Investigation and Crisis Management
Download our Crisis Management app
Wikborg Rein’s Crisis Management Tool is now ready for download. The tool provides practical, immediate and step-by[1]step guidance in case of various types of crises arising as a result of unannounced inspections and controls by the police or other public authorities.
Expansion of the UK’s corporate criminal liability regime
The UK Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (“the ECCTA”) was formally approved on 26 October 2023. Among the most significant reforms introduced by the ECCTA are the establishment of ‘failure to prevent fraud’ as a new UK corporate criminal offence, and a reform of the UK identification doctrine expanding the extent of corporate criminal liability for economic crimes. In this article, we highlight the details of these two key aspects of the Act, and explain how they will affect Norwegian companies with operations or subsidiaries in the UK.
Privilege in the UK – a landmark decision
A High Court decision limiting privilege in relation to advice prepared for a company regarding claims of fraud and corruption has recently been overturned by the Court of Appeal in London. The decision widens the scope of protection for disclosing documents created by internal investigations and should give comfort to organisations facing such allegations.
