By Mark Goodman, Maura Kathleen Monaghan, Paul Rubin, Jacob Stahl ( December 13, 2018, 12:24 PM EST) -- Life sciences companies are susceptible to a wide range of legal crises that could expose them to legal liability, negatively impact commercial relationships and destroy reputations built over many years. A crisis can trigger concurrent investigations by Congress, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (for publicly traded companies), the U.S. Department of Justice and, potentially, other federal and state regulatory agencies. In addition, life sciences companies may be named in lawsuits alleging violations of the False Claims Act, product liability lawsuits and class actions in multiple jurisdictions, while also being subject to extensive media scrutiny. But these risks need not lead to disaster — provided that a company has prepared in advance for the possibility of such a crisis. Below, we present a hypothetical situation, followed by a series of questions and answers, to provide life sciences companies with suggestions for preparing for and managing crises and addressing the wide array of legal issues that may arise....