Practice Areas

GRS and Early Issue Conflict Management (EICM) ©

The aim of EICM is to identify potential areas of conflict at an early stage and to employ tools to deal with it, before developing into a dispute. The overall goal of EICM is to minimize risk, cost, time spent and resources (financial and human) expended on conflicts, while preserving important business relationships. To achieve this, companies must actively engaged in conflict avoidance programs, putting in place a framework that both helps prevent disputes from arising and that deals with disputes in their earliest stages as close as possible to the point of origin.


 EICM programs lead to:

A stronger holistic relationship with customers, suppliers, employees and partners;
processes to ensure conflicts are resolved early on avoiding costly and uncertain litigation;
lower and better managed legal costs with a higher degree of efficiency and accuracy;
a more efficient utilization of company financial and human capital; a bottom line business role for in house counsel. The traditional approach to disputes deals with addressing the core issue of the dispute itself. This deals with the legal issue, but not the factors that gave rise to the conflict in the first place. For example a disagreement as to what a specification requires, is not in itself a legal question, but often a matter of technical interpretation. It is the ensuing action taken by the parties, each advocating their contractual rights, which leads to a legal dispute. Disputes may be amplified in a global setting where companies are investing in countries they have little knowledge of, with different cultures and political environments, where the legal system and courts are foreign and perhaps corrupt, providing little or no effective dispute resolution mechanism.

​Conducting a risk analysis to identifying potential conflict points in a company’s contracts and programs by looking at historical data, lessons learned, local jurisdictional issues, cultural aspects and regulatory risks;
building into contracts, mechanisms to deal with these conflict risks, including the early engagement of neutrals, advisers, experts, or mediators; to bring an objective view into the relationship; mechanisms for the early identification of issues that may surface during contract performance, before they develop into a conflict; viewing relationships holistically i.e. the bigger picture beyond the contract itself including future programs, expanding relationships and sharing of economic opportunities;

An effective EICM provides the opportunity to explore realistic options permitting relationships to continue and conflicts to be avoided or resolved. 

An EICM program provides an effective and innovative approach to conflict management that includes: GRS provides the talent, expertise and tools for EICM to be built into any global commercial relationship. 

-Arbitration 
-Single and Co-mediation 
-Adjudication 

-Consultation
-Focused Training
-Conflict History Analysis
-Tailored ADR Programs
-ADR Policies and Procedures
-Dispute Boards
-Dispute Management Procedures
-ADR Guidelines and Model Clauses
-Compliance and Governancce Programs 

 Specialization 

-Aerospace 

-Aviation
-Commercial 

-Cyber
-Technology and IP 
-Investor State 
-Maritime 

-Insurance

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