Would you know if your business was involved in child labor, a privacy violation, or another human rights impact? What about a business partner or supplier? If your business doesn't respect human rights, you could be open to devastating adverse publicity as well as hard legal liability.
The legal landscape is changing. Soft law, such as the UN Guiding Principles, is crystalizing into hard law. Courts all around the world are extending their jurisdiction to human rights impacts that occur extraterritorially and throughout a business's value chain.
We have acted in some of the leading disputes in this field, wherever, and however, they were brought: in the United States under the Alien Tort Claims Act, in English parent company liability cases, and in other courts exercising universal jurisdiction over alleged complicity in international crimes.
This means that we understand the legal risk associated with adverse human rights impacts. Our integrated practice group builds on this foundation to provide the full spectrum of business and human rights advice, including:
- preventing and reporting on modern slavery
- supply chain transparency
- human rights due diligence
- risk assessment and deal approvals
- human rights investigations and crisis management
- managing the remediation of harm, including operational-level grievance mechanisms
- defending human rights-related claims, wherever, and however, they are brought.