Professor Suzanne Rab spoke at the Reputation in Litigation panel at this year’s Financial Regulatory and Disputes summit, providing a perspective from the bar on the effective management of information and reputation in litigation.

Suzanne distilled her insights for reputation management from a recent study by Gowling WLG which provides data on how litigation can impact company share prices across its lifecycle, even for claimants. This found that upon the announcement of litigation, companies see an average 5% drop in share price. The report further distinguished the drop in share price between claimants and defendants. Suzanne outlined how, according to this report, claimants see an average 3.5% drop, whereas defendants see an average 6.1% drop. 

Furthermore, the study details how, upon the conclusion of litigation, the average change in share value for companies announcing positive outcomes was +8.0%, whereas for negative outcomes it was -1.6%. In the first 100 days following the conclusion of litigation, the study found that companies with a negative outcome underperformed in the market by -12.0% compared to companies with a positive outcome, which outperformed the market by +1.5%.

Maltin PR Senior Partner and former BBC Legal Correspondent Clive Coleman chaired the panel, who was joined by Managing Partner Tim Maltin. Clive focussed on how journalists increasingly rely upon litigation PR professionals to help them negotiate the architecture of complex litigation, and Tim explained that litigation always presents a major risk to reputation, with matter value often being dwarfed by the reputation damage that can occur if the narrative is not handled correctly.

For more information on the event, please click here.