Lawyers, no matter which industry, are grappling with how to deal with legal ethics and compliance issues in their supply chains.

In-house attorneys with international corporations, including Exxon Mobil Corp., addressed this dilemma head-on during the Association of Corporate Counsel's annual meeting in Washington D.C., Tuesday.

Robert Johnson, associate GC at Exxon, said his company's 430 attorneys worldwide are constantly confronted with new questions when it comes to areas within its massive supply chain. Just this past week, for instance, the company had to check whether it used any Kobe Steel products. Kobe came under fire this month after admitting to falsifying certification for copper, aluminum and steel products that were sold to as many as 500 companies.

It turns out Exxon was one of them.

Johnson and his colleagues found themselves asking questions like: “Did we buy some of that? Yes we did. Where did we put it? Various facilities in various places,” he recalled. “And so now we're running around and investigating. We've got to find out: 'Where's that steel; is it a problem?' Of course the lawyers will look at the contracts and decide whether we have to make claims.”

Another example that impacted Exxon's supply chain is the recent executive order imposing sanctions on relationships with North Korea. Johnson explained that “you can't use a ship that has been on the North Korea port in the past six months.”

“One of the things we're wrestling with at Exxon Mobil right now is, do we need to do due diligence to find out if these ships have been there? Or is it enough for us to put in our contracts, 'Hey maritime company, you need to make sure we don't have any of these ships in our supply chain.' Is that enough? Not sure,” Johnson said.

Johnson admits that, while Exxon's concerns are countless, they face less of a risk with things like child labor, which has historically plagued industries such as apparel retail, he said.

He advised companies to continue to examine their existing population of suppliers and distributors. “There are a lot of technology tools out there to use,” he said. “You can do that at a reasonable cost.”

One emerging area where he thinks companies will need to pay more attention is with cybersecurity.

At Exxon, he said, for any companies hosting the company's data or with “any kind of access to the network,” there is an external service provider agreement in place. Exxon's cybersecurity team reviews that company's cybersecurity practices extensively, Johnson said.

Exxon's team is asking: “Do they have good practices? Do they have good firewalls? Are we comfortable with it?”

“That's an emerging due diligence area that I think all of us will be doing more of,” Johnson said. “The fun never ends in the supply chain.”

Lawyers, no matter which industry, are grappling with how to deal with legal ethics and compliance issues in their supply chains.

In-house attorneys with international corporations, including Exxon Mobil Corp., addressed this dilemma head-on during the Association of Corporate Counsel's annual meeting in Washington D.C., Tuesday.

Robert Johnson, associate GC at Exxon, said his company's 430 attorneys worldwide are constantly confronted with new questions when it comes to areas within its massive supply chain. Just this past week, for instance, the company had to check whether it used any Kobe Steel products. Kobe came under fire this month after admitting to falsifying certification for copper, aluminum and steel products that were sold to as many as 500 companies.

It turns out Exxon was one of them.

Johnson and his colleagues found themselves asking questions like: “Did we buy some of that? Yes we did. Where did we put it? Various facilities in various places,” he recalled. “And so now we're running around and investigating. We've got to find out: 'Where's that steel; is it a problem?' Of course the lawyers will look at the contracts and decide whether we have to make claims.”

Another example that impacted Exxon's supply chain is the recent executive order imposing sanctions on relationships with North Korea. Johnson explained that “you can't use a ship that has been on the North Korea port in the past six months.”

“One of the things we're wrestling with at Exxon Mobil right now is, do we need to do due diligence to find out if these ships have been there? Or is it enough for us to put in our contracts, 'Hey maritime company, you need to make sure we don't have any of these ships in our supply chain.' Is that enough? Not sure,” Johnson said.

Johnson admits that, while Exxon's concerns are countless, they face less of a risk with things like child labor, which has historically plagued industries such as apparel retail, he said.

He advised companies to continue to examine their existing population of suppliers and distributors. “There are a lot of technology tools out there to use,” he said. “You can do that at a reasonable cost.”

One emerging area where he thinks companies will need to pay more attention is with cybersecurity.

At Exxon, he said, for any companies hosting the company's data or with “any kind of access to the network,” there is an external service provider agreement in place. Exxon's cybersecurity team reviews that company's cybersecurity practices extensively, Johnson said.

Exxon's team is asking: “Do they have good practices? Do they have good firewalls? Are we comfortable with it?”

“That's an emerging due diligence area that I think all of us will be doing more of,” Johnson said. “The fun never ends in the supply chain.”