The Oklahoma Bar Journal May 2024

processes, consider this your call to action. Your duties to the company as a member of senior management and as an advisor to the board require you to have visibility of potential vulnerabilities across the enterprise. It is no longer enough to validate compliance and manage litigation. Stakeholders are more sophisticated than ever before. They know the questions to ask. Be prepared to answer the question, “How do you know the company is effectively managing risk?”

have been implemented as designed and are effectively addressing risk? Effective risk management does not happen once a year. Ask questions to verify how risk is managed and monitored on a daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly basis.

ENDNOTES 1. National Public Radio, “PG&E Pleads Guilty On 2018 California Camp Fire: ‘Our Equipment Started That Fire,’” https://n.pr/49OBwkp. 2. New York Times , “California Wildfires: How PG&E Ignored Risks in Favor of Profits,” https://bit.ly/3xynshg. 3. U.S. Department of Transportation, https://bit.ly/4d7mCZp. 4. U.S. Department of Transportation, https://bit.ly/3TXHDgl. 5. Id . 6. Federal Register, https://bit.ly/3UcfMKC. 7. “Greenwashing,” Merriam-Webster , https://bit.ly/3VUDkok (last visited Nov. 2, 2022). 8. Subodh Mishra, “The Rise of Climate Litigation,” Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance (March 3, 2022). 9. U.N. Environment Programme; “Global Climate Litigation Report: 2020 Status Review” (Jan. 26, 2021), https://bit.ly/3UepzQe. 10. KQED, “10 Emails That Detail PG&E’s Cozy Relationship With Regulators,” https://bit.ly/3VOMumu. 11. AZCentral, “Texts show utility regulator Andy Tobin is way too cozy with APS,” https://bit.ly/3VXv6w0.

How is it documented? What tools facilitate mon itoring of risk by senior leadership?

CONCLUSION

Regardless of whether your company is taking the first step or the 100th step at maturing an integrated risk management process across the enterprise, the work is valuable. At every stage, it is worth the time and resources to affect outcomes proactively and safeguard strategic goals. By implementing and monitoring controls, the company can reduce the likelihood of a risk event as well as mitigate potential conse quences. For a general counsel who has not historically had a seat at the table to discuss the company’s risk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Charlene Wright is managing partner of Wright & Associates, a law firm focused on environmental, regulatory,

transactional, risk management, corporate governance, compliance and ethics, and litigation on behalf of energy and infrastructure companies. She is licensed to practice in Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas and Illinois and has handled litigation in 14 states in both federal and state courts.

Statements or opinions expressed in the Oklahoma Bar Journal are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Oklahoma Bar Association, its officers, Board of Governors, Board of Editors or staff.

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THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL