Big Picture
GC takes a look at the intersection of risk and the legal function, from the perspectives of a general counsel and an insurance underwriter.
The world is ‘living in an era of unprecedented level of crises and troubles,’ UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told delegates to the UN General Assembly Meeting during his welcoming address in September. What does this mean for organisations doing business on the ground in troubled jurisdictions?
Even defining a ‘conflict zone’ is problematic, says Jason Herriott, insurance underwriter at Amlin. He’s chairman of the London Market Association’s Terrorism and Political Violence panel, and sat on its Joint War Committee for a decade. ‘The question is: what do we mean by the term? Because if we’re looking at a terrorism conflict zone then we’re talking about countries perhaps with indigenous problems, for example Colombia with the FARC. That’s a very different conflict to what you’d be looking at in Ukraine.’ Companies face the risk that the situation can shift and destabilise around them, sometimes rapidly and unexpectedly. Keith Ruddock, general counsel of The Weir Group, has seen this first hand – Weir has operations in Iraq – although in the more stable south of the country – and in Libya, prior to evacuating its staff from there earlier this year. So for some businesses, operating in a conflict zone might not be a choice, but an unforeseen problem that needs to be solved.
