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One defendant 5 , Company X for this discussion, was a small engineering company thatfor decades had provided the mine with recommendations for harvesting the remainingcoal pillars. The media, government investigators, and plaintiffs’ lawyers accused thecompany of misconduct and criminal offenses. There were only a handful of experts inthe world who could understand the complex engineering and operations, thus a“standard of care” was difficult to define.The government investigations proceeded simultaneously with the lawsuits, and theofficial inquiries were haphazard and inconsistent. Lawyers raised concerns thatwitnesses could incriminate themselves by answering questions. For a while, CompanyX and defense counsel received daily messages from CNN and other national mediaoutlets, seeking comment on the latest developments. The mine CEO’s rambling,combative press conferences enraged victims’ family members, who still held out hopefor a rescue.For Company X and many others, these events raised extremely sensitive business andlegal concerns, including the impacts of unfavorable press, the wisdom of cooperationwith oversight agencies, damage to reputations and commercial relationships, the needto preserve documents and evidence, potential insolvency from fees, costs anduncovered damages, insurance coverage questions, tainting of the jury pool, and theterrifying specter of criminal prosecution. In the lawsuits themselves, unique issuesincluded applying a standard of care to cutting-edge engineering services, sufficiency of5 Hall & Evans represented Company X in this matter, and it has granted permission for the panel togenerally discuss the public aspects of the claims and litigation.