Businesses can be well prepared to manage a crisis by having continuity among stakeholders and avoiding leakage of privileged information to prevent conflict, a panel of legal and compliance experts told attendees at Compliance Week’s 2023 National Conference in Washington, D.C.

Katie Hausfeld, partner and co-chair of global compliance at law firm DLA Piper, moderated the session, which also featured Brian Benjet, who is also partner and co-chair of global compliance at DLA Piper; Lisa Diaz, executive vice president, deputy general counsel and global head of litigation, investigations, and regulatory enforcement at financial services firm Northern Trust Corporation; and Matthew Pachman, vice president, chief risk and compliance officer at FTI Consulting.

At many companies, the C-suite is often the go-to team for crisis management but that shouldn’t always be the case, said Pachman.

“You’ve got to have the [chief executive officer], presumably people like the [chief financial officer] and the general counsel, but it’s not always the C-suite,” he said, adding stakeholders chosen should be “bespoke to each and every business.”