Litigation Management Increasingly Importan
■ LITIGATION RISK
BY CAROLINE MCDONALD
BECOMING MORE involved with and helping manage lawsuits would benefit both the professional standing of risk manag- ers—and their companies, according to an industry expert.
While many risk managers may be in-
timidated by the legal process, and would
prefer leaving the company’s lawsuits in
the hands of lawyers, they should be
looking to apply their risk-management
principles when their organization faces
the prospect of litigation, says Roger L.
Andrews, an attorney and director of risk
management for E.D. Bullard Co., head-
quartered in Cynthiana, Ky.
3 LITIGATION-MANAGEMENT MODELS
Andrews has developed three models for
overseeing litigation: the legal model, the
insurance-company model and the risk-management model.
“The one that’s truly the most effective
is the risk-management model,” he says.
“This is because risk managers know the
company better, know the products better
and are more apt to reach out initially for
some kind of alternative to litigation.”
Risk management, he explains, is a
process—and lawsuits are best managed in
accordance with the steps in that process.
“Managing means, from the time you
are alerted to a potential claim, implementing the steps” that all good risk
managers take when handling any risk,
he says.
Those steps are to:
J Identify the risk
J Assess what the costs could be, including damage to the company’s reputation
