Collaboration Key to Avoiding Product Recalls, Newstead Tells Corporate Counsel

Corporate Counsel interviewed Shook Solicitor/Partner Alison Newstead about the expanded role of in-house counsel to help prevent product recalls.

“Does the Legal Department Have a Role in Preventing a Product Recall?” explores the role of in-house counsel and how various departments within a corporation should work collaboratively to minimize the risk of a recall. Newstead represents a variety of industries globally and handles U.K. and multinational claims and regulatory issues.

“It is about ensuring that the design, development, manufacture and marketing of your product is kept under close scrutiny,” stated Newstead.

She added, “That keeping a watchful eye on the manufacturing process and quality control measures is also extremely important, particularly when manufacturing is carried out overseas.”

“Product recalls often stem from products not being manufactured to specification; both in terms of design and materials,” she said. “Some companies even ‘parachute in’ quality control managers to overseas production plants to ensure that production continually meets the requisite standards.”

Newstead speaks and writes frequently in her area of law. She and her Shook colleagues Devin Ross and Jason Harmon recently edited and contributed to the 2019 edition of “Getting The Deal Through: Product Recall,” which provides an overview on the status of product recall law in more than a dozen countries.