The recent pressure on Porsche and Volkswagen has generated plenty of column inches about commercial strategy, market share and the future of the automotive sector. What gets less attention but arguably matters just as much is what's happening in the boardrooms and legal teams behind the scenes.

Big structural change doesn't just raise operational and commercial questions. It raises legal ones. And in my experience, those legal questions often turn out to be the hardest ones to get right under pressure.

When a business is going through significant transformation, whether that's cost restructuring, disposal of non-core assets, or a wider strategic pivot, the question of whether existing governance structures are actually fit for purpose tends to get overlooked. Boards and committees that work perfectly well in steady-state conditions can become a real bottleneck when quick, complex decisions need to be made. It's worth asking the question early, not in the middle of a crisis.

Contracts are another area that comes into sharp focus. Long-term supply arrangements, joint ventures, financing agreements, many of these were put in place in a very different commercial environment and may not have the flexibility businesses now need. Renegotiation, restructuring or exit can all be on the table, but each comes with its own risks and costs that need to be carefully mapped out before anyone takes a step.

And then there are the cross-cutting issues, employment and workforce restructuring, regulatory approvals in multiple jurisdictions, and the reputational and stakeholder risks that come with any high-profile transformation. None of these operates in isolation, and the interaction between them is often where things get complicated.

The businesses that navigate this kind of change most effectively tend to be the ones that bring their legal advisers in early, not to manage risk reactively, but to help shape the strategy from the start. Organisational resilience isn't just a financial metric anymore. It's about how well a business anticipates and manages legal complexity alongside everything else.