Risk Advisory

Complex investments, commercial arrangements and procurement decisions carry risk across vendor selection, contract negotiation and project delivery.

Working alongside our legal practice, we advise on investment and project governance design, commercial strategy and risk allocation, and transaction evaluation and governance. We support procurement strategy assessment and design, vendor management including evaluation and negotiation, and project governance framework assessment, uplift and implementation.

Organizations undergoing significant and complex change, whether driven by regulatory reform, technology modernization, restructuring or strategic repositioning, face heightened execution risk across program delivery, governance, and compliance.

Providing independent oversight across change and transformation programs, including program governance design, risk and issue management and benefits realization tracking. We work alongside program teams to identify and mitigate risks to successful delivery, assess readiness for key milestones and regulatory deadlines, and provide transparent reporting to boards and steering committees to support informed decision-making.

Managing complex regulatory obligations and ongoing compliance activities demands consistent, scalable operational capability that many organizations struggle to maintain in-house.

Providing commercial, end-to-end managed solutions to complex risk and regulatory operational challenges by bringing together legal, risk, technology and operational experience. Services include compliance monitoring and testing, regulatory reporting, control assurance, policy management and operational risk support, delivered as scalable, embedded solutions tailored to each organization's requirements.

Cyber security and operational resilience are critical boardroom priorities, with organizations facing an evolving threat landscape shaped by heightened geopolitical uncertainty, increasing dependence on technology and third-party providers, and ever-changing regulatory obligations. A significant cyber incident or operational disruption can erode customer and stakeholder trust, trigger regulatory scrutiny and cause lasting reputational and financial harm.

We support organizations to identify and reduce cyber and operational risk before an incident occurs through governance uplift, regulatory and privacy advice, training simulations and maturity assessments. We also help them:

• respond to and navigate crisis events with confidence through regulatory engagement, stakeholder management and business continuity planning; and
• recover and strengthen themselves by embedding lessons learned, enhancing control environments, and building robust plans to operate through disruption and recover within agreed tolerances.

Our battle-tested team brings deep, frontline experience advising leadership teams through some of the most-significant cyber events globally, helping clients across industries turn resilience into a competitive advantage.

For more detail on our approach see Data & Cyber.

Effective data governance, quality and analytics are critical to regulatory compliance, risk reporting, and informed decision-making.

Designing, building, and deploying data-driven solutions to identify, manage and report on risk, maintain compliance, and solve regulatory challenges. Services include Consumer Data Rights program support, data science and advanced analytics solutions, data quality and governance frameworks, intelligent reporting and risk reporting.

Money laundering, terrorism financing, sanctions, trade controls and fraud present significant regulatory, financial and reputational risk.

Advising on all aspects of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing, including risk assessment, technology and processes, independent reviews, and regulatory proceedings. We also support sanctions and trade controls compliance programs and deploy fraud analytics to detect, prevent, and respond to financial crime threats.

We also advise on the identification, prevention, and reporting of scams including fraud risk assessments, control and policy design, staff awareness training, incident response planning, technology and analytics advisory, regulatory compliance guidance, supply chain due diligence and post-incident investigation services.

Effective governance, conduct and accountability frameworks are critical to embedding a strong risk culture, ensuring fair customer outcomes and meeting evolving regulatory expectations.

Advising on the design and implementation of governance and accountability frameworks, including risk appetite setting, Board governance, the three lines of defense model and customer conduct frameworks. Services include board effectiveness reviews, conduct risk assessments, complaints handling uplift, non-financial risk reporting, and guidance on embedding controls, monitoring and reporting to drive consistently fair customer outcomes.

Legal departments face mounting pressure to transform in response to technology proliferation, rising operational complexity, tightening budgets and evolving regulatory and workforce expectations.

Advising legal departments on their transformation journey, from current state and maturity assessments through to future state operating model design, organizational restructuring and process improvement. We provide legal technology advisory and implementation support including technology strategy, vendor assessment, AI use case development and impact assessments, as well as contract managed services model design, template harmonization, playbook development, and contract remediation for major projects and transactions.

Mergers, acquisitions and divestments carry significant risk and compliance exposure that, if not identified early, can erode deal value, delay completion or create post-transaction liabilities.

Our M&A Lifecycle Solution brings together legal, risk advisory and digital experience to deliver end-to-end transaction support, from comprehensive, cross-referenced risk and compliance due diligence across governance, data privacy, employment, ESG, financial crime and regulatory domains, through to post-deal integration and separation. We design and deliver integration and separation programs as part of transactions, advise on harmonizing the post-deal organization, establish governance mechanisms to oversee implementation, enhance risk and compliance management practices, and align people, processes and systems to operationally deliver the deal’s strategic objectives.

Growing reliance on third-party and fourth-party service providers, concentration risk and evolving prudential standards demand a modernized approach to operational risk management.

Delivering end-to-end operational risk framework reviews, capability assessments and uplift programs. We redesign operating models, processes and practices, and leverage digital and technology innovation for improved risk detection, prevention and management. Services include mapping and monitoring critical service providers, assessing concentration risk across outsourcing arrangements, and preparing organizations for regulatory expectations around operational resilience.

Data integrity and privacy face threats from cyber-attacks, internal vulnerabilities and overly broad access, while the adoption of AI and automated decision-making introduces risks around algorithmic fairness, transparency and regulatory compliance.

Advising on pragmatic solutions for privacy compliance and regulatory response, drawing on global perspectives on privacy regulation. Services include privacy risk assessments, training, incident management, response and reviews. We also advise on AI governance frameworks, responsible AI principles, algorithmic risk assessments and compliance with emerging AI regulations - helping organizations deploy AI with confidence while managing associated legal, ethical and operational risks.

Regulatory change, enforcement activity, and supervisory expectations continue to intensify across sectors and jurisdictions.

Providing regulatory change design and implementation advice, including practical approaches to controlling and monitoring regulatory obligations, responding to notices, operationalizing requirements and preparing for independent expert reviews through dry runs. We also advise on the design, assessment, operationalization and delivery of customer remediation programs that meet regulatory and key stakeholder expectations.

Regulatory expectations around ESG disclosure, climate-related risk, nature-related financial reporting, and greenwashing are intensifying, requiring robust frameworks and defensible claims.

Developing ESG strategies and facilitating ESG risk assessment, including climate risk scenario analysis, socio-economic risk and alignment with nature-related financial disclosures (TNFD) frameworks. We establish and review risk management frameworks to ensure appropriate inclusion of ESG elements, advise on greenwashing risk, and implement ESG reform through controls uplift, including updating policies, procedures, processes, training material and reporting outcomes.

We also provide native title advisory support, assisting organizations in understanding and managing obligations relating to Indigenous land rights, cultural heritage protections and free, prior and informed consent requirements. This includes advising on the intersection of native title considerations with climate and sustainability initiatives, such as renewable energy projects, carbon offset programs and land-use planning, to ensure respectful engagement with First Nations communities and compliance with applicable legal and regulatory frameworks.

Click through to discover key examples of our integrated solutions: