Jun 16, 2026 · A&O Shearman
Volatility is no longer the exception — it is the operating environment. The firms that prosper are those that treat resilience as a discipline.
Market volatility has shifted from an occasional shock to a permanent feature of the global economy. Interest-rate uncertainty, fragmented supply chains and shifting capital flows mean that the businesses which prosper are those that build resilience into every decision rather than reacting to each disruption in turn.
For general counsel, that means moving from a reactive posture to an anticipatory one — stress-testing contracts, financing structures and governance against a wider range of outcomes than a decade of relative stability trained most organisations to consider.
The advisers best placed to help are those who can hold a genuinely global view while executing with local precision. A financing negotiated in one market, litigation defended in another and a regulatory approval secured in a third must all move under one coordinated strategy — attributed, reviewed and defensible at every step.
Resilience, in other words, is not a slogan. It is an operating discipline: clear ownership, enforced permissions and a single record of the truth. That is how leading businesses turn volatility from a threat into an advantage.
