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A. Assembling the Company TeamWhen a catastrophic event occurs, immediately, but carefully assemble a responseteam. Take all steps to ensure that legal privileges are protected, and that a “litigationhold” on company documents and emails is painstakingly implemented. The team mustalso include management-level persons with sufficient technical expertise to grasp (andexplain to others) precisely what happened. The team should also have a single persontasked with providing information to outsiders (such as inquiring customers and mediaoutlets).There are numerous court opinions and articles discussing how to protect privilegeswith in-house counsel. 13Most corporate attorneys receive training on these issues. Foreach jurisdiction in which you are headquartered, where the accident happened, andwhere you could be sued, it is essential to be up to speed on the current law of in-houseprotections, as these areas are constantly evolving. 1413 ALFA International regularly offers webinars and written materials on these topics. Additionally, theAssociation of Corporate Counsel provides excellent resources. We recommend: William A. Ruskin,Preserving the Attorney-Client Privilege for In-House Counsel, available athttp://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx (last visited May 30, 2014), which summarizes work byattorneys Thomas E. Zeno and Emily E. Root, and distills tips to assist companies in preservingprivileges. The discussion focuses on court rulings in In re Vioxx Products Liability Litigation, 501F.Supp. 2d 789 (E.D.La. 2007).14 It is also wise to study actual court opinions from time to time to get a flavor for what to do (or what notto do) to preserve in-house privileges. E.g., U.S. ex rel. Baklid-Kunz v. Halifax Hospital MedicalCenter, U.S. Dist. LEXIS 158944 (M.D.Fla. Nov. 6, 2012) (ruling that hundreds of emails to and fromin-house counsel and compliance personnel were not protected because they were not solely relatedto legal advice).