Your Crisis Plan Should Be Built Before the Call Comes. We Make Sure It Is.

Organizations don't fail during a crisis because they lack capable people. They fail because the critical decisions — who's in charge, what gets preserved, who talks to the media, when legal counsel engages — were never resolved before the pressure hit.

Crisis Command is Gray Reed's integrated crisis readiness, response, and recovery offering. We help you build the structures, plans, and capabilities your organization needs to navigate high-stakes events — before they happen, so you’re ready when they do.

Whether you're facing an industrial accident, a cybersecurity breach, executive misconduct allegations, a regulatory investigation, workforce disruptions, or a reputational threat, one thing determines whether your organization emerges intact: preparation.

The organizations that come through strongest are the ones that already answered the hard questions before the first phone call arrived.

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One Coordinated Approach. Not Five Vendors.

In most crisis engagements, organizations scramble to coordinate multiple outside advisors — legal counsel, a PR firm, government affairs consultants, and technical experts — none of whom have worked together before.

That model fails precisely when it matters most: the first hours. Crisis Command eliminates that problem.

Gray Reed attorneys work in close coordination with GRPR — an affiliated public affairs and strategic communications capability within Gray Reed Advisory — providing a closely integrated approach from day one. Not as separate vendors introduced during chaos. Not as firms exchanging emails while the clock runs.

Our team of legal professionals includes experienced litigators, labor and employment attorneys, government investigations counsel, and cybersecurity advisors. Through our coordination with GRPR, our approach also integrates crisis communications and government relations professionals — all aligned under one coordinated strategy.

Why this matters to you:

• A legally sound decision can create reputational consequences. A public statement can create legal exposure. We evaluate both — together, in real time — so you don't solve one problem by creating another.
• You get a coordinated team of legal and non-legal professionals that already knows your plan, and one strategy that accounts for legal risk, regulatory scrutiny, workforce concerns, public perception, and stakeholder expectations simultaneously.
• No gaps. No conflicting advice. No wasted hours getting outside advisors "up to speed" while the situation escalates.

Our Track Record

Crisis Command professionals have guided organizations through some of the most challenging situations they will ever face, including:

• Industrial accidents and catastrophic incidents
• OSHA, DOJ, SEC, DOL, EEOC, IRS, and DOT investigations
• Cybersecurity and data breach events
• Workplace fatalities
• Executive misconduct investigations
• Public entity and school district crises
• High-profile litigation matters
• Mass-casualty incidents
• Reputation recovery efforts
• Long-term governance and compliance transformations

Our experience extends beyond the immediate event. We help organizations use crises as opportunities to strengthen leadership, improve preparedness, and build more resilient operations for the future.

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Crisis Readiness: Build the Capability Before You Need It

When a crisis hits, your leadership team must make decisions in minutes — not hours. The time to determine who is in charge, what information must be preserved, how communications will be managed, and when to engage legal counsel is not during the event itself.

We don't hand you a binder. We build your team's ability to perform under real pressure — so when the crisis arrives, your people know exactly what to do.

Crisis Command readiness engagements include:

• Crisis readiness assessments and gap analysis
• Risk and exposure evaluations tailored to your industry
• Crisis communications planning and spokesperson preparation
• Incident response protocols and activation procedures
• Government investigation and regulatory preparedness
• Cybersecurity readiness reviews
• Workforce incident planning
• Tabletop exercises and live simulations
• Board and executive crisis training

Our readiness programs help you identify weaknesses before they become liabilities — and build practical, tested frameworks your team can activate under pressure.

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The First 15: Where Outcomes Are Decided

The earliest minutes of a crisis determine the trajectory of everything that follows.

The First 15 is Crisis Command's framework for establishing command, preserving critical information, coordinating decision-makers, and maintaining control during the opening stage of an incident. The decisions made in this window directly influence regulatory exposure, litigation risk, workforce safety, media coverage, stakeholder confidence, and long-term reputation.

During the First 15, we help your team:

• Activate leadership and crisis response teams
• Establish clear decision authority
• Preserve evidence and critical records
• Confirm known facts and identify information gaps
• Evaluate immediate legal and regulatory obligations
• Coordinate internal and external messaging
• Prepare for government, regulator, or media engagement
• Align legal, communications, and operational decision-making

The objective: clarity, discipline, and control — before competing narratives and external pressures begin to dictate the conversation.

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The Next 48: Test Your Team Before a Real Crisis Does

Most organizations have a crisis plan. Far fewer have tested it.

The Next 48 is Crisis Command's signature crisis preparedness and executive simulation program — a rigorous, scenario-based exercise designed to reveal how your leaders, crisis teams, and organization actually perform under real-world conditions.

The program is built around the specific operational, legal, workforce, and reputational risks your organization faces. Beginning with the First 15 activation and extending through the first two days of a simulated crisis, your participants experience the same pressures that occur during an actual event:

• Breaking news coverage and media inquiries
• Social media escalation
• Employee concerns and workforce disruptions
• Government investigations and regulator engagement
• Stakeholder demands and board-level pressure
• Legal and operational decision-making under time constraints

This is not a conference room presentation. The Next 48 is a readiness exercise designed to reveal gaps, test assumptions, improve coordination, and strengthen your team's performance before the stakes are real.

Every engagement concludes with practical, actionable deliverables:

• First 15 activation procedures customized to your organization
• Crisis governance and decision-authority recommendations
• Communications playbook guidance
• Response improvement priorities
• Recovery planning considerations
• Long-term risk mitigation recommendations

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Crisis Response: When the Call Comes

No matter how prepared you are, the call will come. The question is whether your organization can execute when it does.

When an incident occurs, Crisis Command activates immediately to help you manage the legal, communications, operational, and regulatory pressures that emerge — often simultaneously.

Our crisis response capabilities include:

• Crisis communications and media relations
• Government investigations and enforcement matters
• Internal investigations
• Labor and employment issues
• Executive and witness preparation
• Regulatory response and agency engagement
• Cyber incident response and breach management
• Litigation risk assessment and early case evaluation
• Stakeholder and investor communications
• Coordination of technical consultants and outside experts

Throughout the response, our focus is on helping you make informed decisions while maintaining confidence among your employees, regulators, customers, investors, governing bodies, and the public.

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Recovery: Emerge Stronger Than Before

A crisis doesn't end when media attention fades.

Recovery requires your organization to address the underlying issues that contributed to the incident, rebuild trust with stakeholders, strengthen governance, and improve future preparedness. The organizations that handle recovery well don't just survive — they use the experience to become more resilient.

Crisis Command helps clients navigate recovery through:

• Root-cause analysis and remediation planning
• Regulatory compliance improvements
• Litigation management and resolution strategy
• Reputation restoration and stakeholder outreach
• Governance enhancements and leadership development
• Policy and procedure improvements
• Future readiness planning and ongoing monitoring

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Industries We Serve

We work across industries where the stakes of a crisis are highest — where regulatory scrutiny is intense, public trust is essential, and a single incident can escalate into an enterprise-wide challenge.

• Energy, Petrochemical & Industrial Operations: Industrial incidents, workplace safety events, environmental matters, regulatory investigations, and business continuity challenges. When an operational crisis occurs in this sector, the regulatory, legal, and public scrutiny is immediate — and unforgiving.
• Construction & Infrastructure: Workplace fatalities, OSHA investigations, contractor disputes, project disruptions, and workforce issues. The combination of physical risk and complex multi-party relationships makes construction crises particularly difficult to manage without coordinated counsel.
• Healthcare: Cybersecurity incidents, patient safety concerns, regulatory investigations, workforce challenges, and reputation management. Healthcare crises carry the added pressure of public trust and patient impact.
• Municipalities & Public Entities: Public trust events, emergency response failures, workforce issues, officer-involved incidents, policy controversies, and media scrutiny. Public entities face crises under a spotlight that private companies rarely experience.
• Public Companies, Family Offices & Closely Held Businesses: Leadership transitions, executive misconduct allegations, employment disputes, governance matters, and reputational threats. In closely held organizations, a crisis is often personal — and the line between business reputation and individual reputation disappears.
• Financial Services: Data breaches, cyberattacks, fraud investigations, compliance failures, regulatory inquiries, executive misconduct allegations, customer-facing incidents, and business continuity disruptions. Financial institutions operate in an environment where public confidence, regulatory oversight, and reputational integrity are inseparable. When a crisis emerges, organizations must navigate legal exposure, regulatory response, customer communications, and market perception at the same time. The speed and coordination of the response often determine whether an incident remains manageable or escalates into a broader enterprise challenge.

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How We Work

Engagements with Crisis Command typically begin with a confidential conversation about your organization's current state of readiness, risk profile, and objectives.

• For organizations building readiness: We start with a focused assessment, identify gaps and priorities, and design a readiness program tailored to your industry, leadership structure, and risk environment. Most readiness assessments are completed within 6 weeks.
• For organizations in crisis: We activate immediately. Our team is structured to deploy coordinated legal, communications, and operational guidance from the first call forward.
• For organizations in recovery: We help you move from response mode to long-term resilience — addressing root causes, rebuilding stakeholder trust, and strengthening your organization for the future.

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Start the Conversation

Whether you're building readiness before a crisis or navigating one right now, Crisis Command is ready.

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