Smith, Gambrell & Russell LLP has assisted its clients for many years in establishing and maintaining industry-specific compliance and corporate governance programs. In this age of government expectation of effective compliance programs and cooperation in government investigations, companies must have ready access to lawyers who can formulate best practices systems and programs to provide guidance in unanticipated times of crisis, such as the unexpected appearance of law enforcement officers with a search warrant in hand. The Corporate Governance Practice Group brings together experts from the Firm’s various disciplines, including antitrust, corporate, employment, environmental, health care, immigration, trade, litigation, intellectual property, securities, and securities enforcement to counsel clients about corporate best practices.

The attorneys in this group are uniquely qualified to counsel clients on the creation and implementation of corporate compliance programs, perform compliance risk assessment evaluations to determine the effectiveness of existing programs and policies in the context of possible sources of risk, establish programs and procedures for responding to possible misconduct in a cost-efficient and effective manner and conduct thorough and expeditious internal investigations. The members of the group have written and supervised the implementation of compliance programs and regularly advise clients on such matters as records retention, international business practices (including compliance with the Anti-Boycott Act and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act), pre-merger communications between competitors, insider trading policies and techniques and tools for implementing and facilitating compliance and corporate governance programs. This Practice Group is well-positioned to provide both proactive and crisis management guidance to our clients.