Law Firm Adds New International Human Rights Compliance Group
The law firm of Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis announced that it has added an International Human Rights Compliance component to its White Collar Defense & Corporate Compliance Group.
The addition springs from the increased need for multinational companies to assess market entry or ongoing business operations through a human rights impact assessment as a matter of corporate due diligence. Such assessments have largely been done by companies in the mining or oil exploration (extractive) industries when they were entering a host country that was economically underdeveloped or conflict ridden and, as a result, had few human rights safeguards.
Companies in all industries face far more subtle, but serious intersections with human rights issues, like censorship and local government laws and customs. Firms coming into the U.S. or another economically developed country to do business need to employ a human rights impact assessment. For example, the connections of even one multinational company executive with a questionable or sanctioned government or practice may be perceived as transgressing human rights standards and may stop a deal or a market entry.
The International Human Rights Compliance Group counsels multinationals, both foreign and domestic, in a number of areas: assessments, governance, transactions and dispute resolution or litigation. The corporate and litigation attorneys in this Group have the capability to draw from any of the firm’s comprehensive menu of legal practice areas to meet a client’s requirements for efficiency and cost management.
It can assist clients in the following areas:
- Performing risk assessments, audits, internal investigations;
- Implementing prevention programs, including creating codes of conduct, internal policies, training and complaint procedures;
- Assisting clients with public responses and inquiries from media, government personnel and nongovernmental organizations;
- Drafting of memoranda and agreements with third parties and government agencies;
- Advising clients on due diligence and risk mitigation;
- Representing parties on human rights risks in M&A and other transactions;
- Defending clients in disputes and litigation in state and federal courts, before administrative agencies and the UN;
- Identifying and supervising counsel in foreign jurisdictions; and
- Educating clients about the extent to which they may have legal “exposure” based on the conduct of companies with which they “partner.”







