Venable Blue

Venable | Blue

Venable Blue helps organizations and individuals manage and mitigate risk in the online space. Whether it’s an issue of data access, account takeover, cyber harassment, child safety, or a government or regulatory investigation, we build, operationalize, and deploy integrated programs and systems designed with people and products in mind.

We seamlessly manage time-bound and sensitive media and regulatory inquiries, enabling you to respond to such escalations in sensitive areas of business, including regulatory, compliance, content, child safety, human rights, and privacy online, and manage regulator-mandated assessments.

Our team of seasoned analysts provides end-to-end personalized guidance in online safety, security, privacy, human rights, intelligence, and crisis management to turn a crisis into an opportunity, to help protect the client’s data and reputation, and to meet their policy obligations.

From Fortune 500 companies, including global tech companies, to family offices and high-net-worth individuals, our clients range in size and complexity, and Venable Blue is equipped to provide strategic, tactical, and actionable guidance and embedded operational management.

Whether our clients are tackling a cutting-edge issue, operationalizing regulatory enforcement order requirements, conducting human rights assessments, or looking to identify actionable intelligence, Venable Blue provides contextual solutions with speed and efficiency.

We combine the resources and expertise of a full-service law firm that includes an award-winning privacy and security practice, with the practical knowledge and experience of high-capacity analysts from top tech firms, government agencies, the armed services, and leading Fortune 100-500 companies.

Escalations Management

Efficiently respond to sensitive topics, keeping you ahead of the curve.

We build and manage the programs, policies, and operational models that are essential for effectively responding to time-bound and sensitive media and regulatory inquiries. By driving coordination across policy, legal, product, regulatory, and enforcement stakeholders, we ensure the current escalation is managed while tackling endemic and systemic problems to prevent future ones. We manage escalations in all areas of business, including regulatory, compliance, content, generative AI (GenAI), child safety, human rights, and privacy online, and manage regulator-mandated assessments.

Build/Manage Program

We develop the process, program, and runbooks that allow for time-sensitive media and regulatory inquiries to be addressed in an effective, efficient, and internally aligned manner. By building these programs and managing these inquiries, we limit or prevent future escalations.

One-Off Support/Response

We identify answers to one-off time-sensitive media and regulatory inquiries in an effective, efficient, and internally aligned manner.

Public Affairs (Proactive/Reactive)

We build and advance client credibility within an industry by defining and establishing strategic partnerships and networks. 

Regulatory Order Life Cycle Management

Develop and maintain systems to stay on track with regulators and auditors.

We enable a comprehensive understanding of the requirements faced in a regulator’s request and help create a regulatory life cycle response program that streamlines the delivery of accurate information to the appropriate stakeholders. We oversee the entire process and act as a bridge between the assessor, the regulator, and organizations, helping to ensure responses are accurate and timely from start to finish, and empowering clients to remain compliant with the terms of an order.

Understanding

Our work enables organizations to understand the engineering, product, operational, tooling, and implementation requirements necessary to execute and comply with a regulatory action or settlement.

Response

We collect evidence, analyze data, and write and validate responses to a third-party assessor request or during an assessment cycle.

Productizing

Our team defines, designs, and advises during the building of new front-end and back-end solutions for products to ensure identified gaps are fixed and settlement agreements are properly complied with. 

Actionable Intel and Litigation Support

Provide intelligence-based information to support critical business decisions and respond to threats.

We equip clients with actionable intelligence products that can inform decision-making for litigation, investment, and other business decisions. By deploying open-source intelligence (OSINT) methods, we can conduct an “Achilles Risk Profile” for litigation and assess threats against high-net-worth individuals and senior executives.

Actionable, Monitoring, and Threat Intel

We utilize OSINT research to monitor people and events that are important to your business, assess any threats that may impact your organization, and identify information that may be used for litigation, investment, and other business decisions.

Information Removal

We drive efforts to remove unwanted and unauthorized information online.

Litigation Support (for Venable)

Our team deploys market best practices in OSINT research to assess witnesses and experts in preparation for depositions and trials.

Opposition Research

We deploy market best practices in OSINT research on opposition parties in preparation for deposition and trials.

Business of Human Rights

Enable the protection of free expression and privacy, and minimize the risk to civil rights and child safety, and of human trafficking.

We integrate human rights principles into business strategy and operations to enable increased revenue, improvements in reputation, and greater trust and loyalty among customers. By evaluating and building human rights programs, identifying and reducing unintended harms to human rights, identifying growth opportunities using human rights principles, and operationalizing the business of human rights, we make human rights work for your business.

Productizing

We build a comprehensive human rights program that enables an organization to consistently and seamlessly evaluate the impact of human rights on their product development and implementation.

Assessments

We evaluate organizations and products via a human rights capacity by conducting GNI Assessments.

New Market Assessment

Our work enables organizations to make smart business decisions by evaluating market entry propositions with a human rights lens, and developing mitigation strategies for successful business execution.

Our Work in Action
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Turning a CSAM Crisis into a Public Affairs Opportunity

Venable Blue developed an escalations strategy to reshape the public image of a leading technology service provider, resulting in new business partnerships and improved management of crucial issues.

A leading technology service provider faced a complex policy and media conundrum when bad actors used their platform to facilitate child exploitation. To help the client preserve its reputation, Venable Blue developed a multipronged strategy to ensure the client had a strong privacy policy, a thorough management of public interest, and a known commitment to defending child safety. In guiding the client through this policy and regulatory crisis, Venable Blue utilized its knowledge in policy, communications, and public affairs, as well as its broad network, to create industry partnerships that led to new business opportunities and enhanced the client’s credibility.

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Enabling Swift Remediation of a Major Technology Company’s Flagship Product

Under significant time pressure, Venable Blue drove strategic remediation efforts that enabled a technology company to bring its main product into compliance and avoid significant regulatory fines.

After the passage of a law pushed a major technology company’s main product out of compliance, Venable Blue was brought in to advise regarding product changes and help bring the company into compliance. In under two weeks, the Venable Blue team broke down silos within the client’s internal teams, bringing together engineering, communications, legal, and policy teams. By developing and proposing strategic product remediation efforts, Venable Blue not only helped the client become compliant, but also helped prevent a massive fine and the loss of trust between the client and the regulator.

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Mitigating Legal, Financial, and Reputational Risk Through Enhanced Assessment Tooling

With the help of Venable Blue, a multinational company was empowered to respond efficiently to regulator assessment requests with upgraded tooling systems.

When the client, a multinational technology company, faced legal, financial, and reputational risks due to inadequate tooling for responding to regulator assessment requests, it turned to Venable Blue. Leveraging our experience in partnering with third-party assessors, Venable Blue worked to upgrade and enhance the client’s tooling systems to make data collection more granular, consistent, and accessible. From assessing quality assurance processes to enacting technical production changes, Venable Blue proposed both quick and long-term solutions to reduce risk, empower proactive issue mitigation, and enhance trust between the client and assessors.

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Building a Regulatory Response Program for a Technology Conglomerate

Faced with a multi-decade assessment, a technology company called on Venable Blue to manage the response and implement changes that would avert future compliance orders.

When a technology conglomerate was required by the FTC to submit to a third-party assessment, Venable Blue was called in to manage the immediate assessor inquiries and operationalize accurate and timely response mechanisms. Diving deep into the client’s tech products and processes, the team developed best practices for responding to assessor inquiries, identified potential assessor concerns, determined proactive solutions to these concerns, and worked with the client to take mitigation steps. In assisting with the client’s assessor responses and product solution life cycles, Venable Blue worked to both reduce the risk of ineffective assessor management and improve the client’s ability to react to, or fully avert, future compliance orders.

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Developing a Takedowns Process to Safeguard a Multinational Toy Company’s Intellectual Property

When unauthorized images of a major toy company’s new product are released online, Venable Blue developed a takedown process that helps avert financial and reputational harm.

The client, a multinational toy manufacturing company, is faced with a challenge when unauthorized photos of an upcoming toy release circulate online. In need of a knowledgeable and efficient partner, they engaged Venable Blue to craft a strategy that would safeguard the client’s intellectual property. By developing a scalable process for executing takedowns, Venable Blue was able to submit over 3,000 takedown requests, successfully mitigating financial and reputational risks for the client.

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Conducting a Human Rights Assessment for a Multinational Technology Conglomerate

Tasked with evaluating a technology company’s implementation of human rights principles, Venable Blue conducted an assessment of the company’s products and policies related to free speech and privacy.

The Global Network Initiative (GNI), a multi-stakeholder platform that protects digital rights around the globe, was tasked to conduct an assessment of a technology company. When GNI turned to Venable Blue to lead this effort, our team researched and analyzed the company’s key freedom of expression and privacy rights incidents and responses. Coupled with a series of in-depth stakeholder interviews, Venable Blue delivered a thorough and holistic assessment of the company’s current state in, and future potential for, promoting freedom of expression and privacy.

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Addressing the challenges created by emerging technologies, Venable Blue helps people and companies manage and mitigate their safety, security, and privacy risks both on and offline.