Helping enhance our clients’ brands around the world.

If your company already has global business interests—or is looking toward the global markets for new opportunities—you’re facing many additional, perhaps unanticipated, risks and challenges. Businesses participating in the global marketplace are increasingly held to higher standards of social, environmental and ethical accountability; and unresponsive companies risk damage to their reputations, brand image and competitiveness.

At Foley Hoag, we help our clients anticipate these challenges and limit their risks by incorporating internationally recognized standards into their strategic planning, crisis response strategies and relationships with stakeholders.

Our clients gain access to our strategic, cost-effective policies and programs, which we’ve designed to safeguard your reputation, limit your legal risk, and turn the challenges of globalization into a competitive advantage for your organization. We customize our corporate social responsibility services to match the specific needs of your industry and your organization, creating legal strategies and business policies that incorporate respect for human rights and comply with all relevant existing laws and voluntary codes.

Through our counsel, you benefit from: 

  • Decreased threats to your corporate reputation 
  • Reduced legal risks associated with the uncertainties of globalization 
  • Enhanced brand image 
  • Increased customer and employee loyalty and retention 
  • Improved relationships with external stakeholders and public opinion leaders

Our services are based on worldwide best practices and universal standards, and we customize our work to meet your specific needs and objectives. We provide you with risk-management counsel at three stages:

Reputation risk assessment
Standard setting
Program implementation

To help you address current and prospective issues that could affect your commercial success, we also provide counseling on government issues, community and media relations, crisis response and strategic planning.

Reputation risk assessment

Experienced Foley Hoag professionals provide our clients with comprehensive country and regional analyses of the key issues and the risks associated with the following matters: 

  • Human rights 
  • Community relations 
  • Labor standards 
  • Asset security 
  • Environmental stewardship 
  • Indigenous rights 
  • Business ethics 
  • Political stability/civil strife 
  • Economic changes 
  • Rule of law

On all of these matters, we provide you with conclusions that include assessments of the political, competitive and public policy dangers your business faces. We also propose measures to address these challenges.

Standard Setting

We work with you to provide corporate responsibility benchmarking and develop codes of conduct tailored to your company’s needs. These codes highlight respect for fundamental human/worker rights, environmental and business ethics, and other standards as established by the United Nations, multilateral organizations, and best practices worldwide. Additionally, we help our clients develop social, environmental, and strategic policies to address key risk factors.

Where industry standards are already established, we help you determine the degree to which your company policies and corporate culture reflect the industry standard. We also help multinational clients work with local governments and companies to set standards for security arrangements that are consistent with internationally established principles governing law enforcement and the use of force and firearms.

Program Implementation

To maximize corporate credibility, we help clients create top-to-bottom implementation procedures to align their management systems and practices and to establish internal and external monitoring systems. To further this effort, we help clients develop transparent decision-making processes that incorporate the mutual values of companies, local governments, multilateral institutions, and relevant non-governmental organizations.

Government, Community and Media Relations

Successful risk management requires effective channels of communication and positive relationships with key external stakeholders. We use our extensive experience in government, community and media relations to assist our clients in working with the U.S. Congress and Administration; foreign governments; the media; local communities; and other external stakeholders, including unions, non-governmental organizations and minority shareholder groups.

Additionally, we can help you build relationships with indigenous communities and develop programs addressing the needs of local workers. We can also help you establish partnerships with international organizations that foster social and marketplace stability in developing countries.

Crisis Response and Strategic Planning

If you need crisis intervention, we can provide both short- and long-term strategies to help you respond to crises worldwide. These plans include: 

  • Addressing allegations of complicity in worker, human rights and environmental abuses 
  • Boycotts, divestment campaigns, and other hostile initiatives by external stakeholders 
  • Civil disruptions 
  • Attacks on property apoad 
  • Conflicts with local governments and indigenous peoples

To minimize the likelihood of encountering these problems, we take a proactive approach. This means helping our clients devise strategic growth, trade and investment plans that address local and global challenges, while protecting their interests.

Representative Experience

Foley Hoag lawyers counsel our clients on widely varied corporate social responsibility issues. The following matters provide an overview of the extent of our work:

  • Advising BP p.l.c. on human rights, labor rights, security practices, and rule of law issues regarding the BTC oil pipeline project, which will be located in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. Foley Hoag previously conducted a seminal human rights assessment for BP in Papua, Indonesia. This study identified potential issues surrounding the development of a large natural gas field, including its impact on indigenous peoples. We also provided guidance regarding balancing human rights and security concerns, as well as supporting Papuan civil society and governance. 
  • Researched and analyzed, on behalf of The World Bank Group, the corporate social responsibility codes of conduct of over 100 multinational corporations, multi-stakeholder groups, and non-governmental organizations in five major industry sectors, including apparel and footwear manufacturing, agribusiness, tourism, mining, and oil and gas. Our findings included an analytical comparison of international best practices and standards, which The World Bank published in a landmark two-volume study. 
  • Retained by Polo Ralph Lauren to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of its global human-rights compliance program. This work included evaluating the company’s existing code of conduct, operating guidelines, monitoring structure, reporting structure and communications systems. Our goal was to enhance implementation of industry best practices and help ensure compliance with international legal norm.