Risk Assessment

Summary

This practice note discusses the importance and process of conducting risk assessments. Risk assessments are a central component of any effective compliance program. Building and enhancing a strong compliance program requires understanding not only risk hot-spots in a company's global operations, but also industry risk trends, new and emerging issues, and strengths and weaknesses of existing risk mitigation measures. As companies and their counsel and/or outside compliance advisors prepare to conduct or oversee ongoing, periodic, and/or targeted risk assessments, they need to understand the importance and purpose of risk assessments, best practices for ensuring an effective risk assessment process, and how to translate risk assessment findings into actionable enhancement steps.