Capabilities

Broad experience. Deep expertise.

Panterra is usually brought on to solve complex problems. Our work is typically varied, but often falls into the following types of issues.

01Sovereign & geopolitical

Sovereign and geopolitical advisory

Counsel for governments, sovereign institutions, investors and companies operating in politically sensitive or internationally exposed environments.

The work spans national positioning, bilateral engagement, multilateral institutions, sanctions regimes, investment promotion and the management of state capacity through periods of pressure. Engagements are run by senior directors with direct experience in foreign policy, security and government.

Called in when — a State-owned enterprise faces political resistance to an international transaction, or a principal needs confidential geopolitical counsel outside their existing advisory perimeter.

02Disputes

Disputes and contested mandates

Aligning legal, political, reputational and stakeholder strategy on high-value, cross-border or politically sensitive disputes.

Large disputes are rarely won in the legal arena alone. They are won by ensuring that the legal case, the political case, the media case and the stakeholder case all hold together. We work alongside leading counsel and litigation funders. We do not appear in proceedings; we make sure the proceedings happen inside a wider environment that does not work against the client.

Called in when — an investor-state arbitration, contested takeover, sanctions enforcement or internal investigation has political and reputational exposure that exceeds the legal exposure.

03Crisis & reputation

Crisis and reputation

Preparing for, managing and recovering from acute political, media, regulatory or reputational pressure.

Retained either before an event — building resilience, training principals, pressure-testing readiness, mitigating potential crisis scenarios — or in the first hours of a live situation, often through legal counsel. We do not chase incidents and we do not market off them. We pride ourselves in helping clients avoid potential crises as much as we do in helping them manage and end them.

Called in when — a company or state wants to build crisis resiliency or manage active allegations that create media, regulatory or political exposure.

04Campaigns & influence

Campaigns and international influence

Designing and delivering campaigns that move institutions, stakeholders and public opinion across borders.

The campaigns we run are not awareness exercises. They are structured efforts to change a decision, a regulation, an electoral campaign, a perception or a position — typically across multiple jurisdictions. We do not subcontract the execution.

Called in when — shifting the current debate matters: in contested elections, legislative campaigns, and when your organisation or company is facing sustained public pressure or organised opposition.

05Market access

Market access and regulatory engagement

Helping clients understand policy direction, build stakeholder support and secure licence to operate.

Sectors that were previously apolitical can no longer afford to ignore political systems and institutions. Licence to operate sits with regulators, ministries, parliaments and the public in roughly equal measure.

Called in when — companies looking to enter, expand or exit a market require political, national security, regulatory or stakeholder acceptance to succeed.

06Strategic communications

Strategic communications

Positioning, narrative and message development for principals, boards, governing parties, administrations and institutions whose words are scrutinised.

The small number of communications outputs that really matter. We do not run press offices, publish news releases and we do not handle day-to-day media relations.

Called in when — your organisation faces a defining moment or challenge that requires leadership to deliver the right message under pressure: when your strategy needs to shift, your company goes public, or your principal is preparing for the big stage.

07Research & Data-led Insights

Research & Data-led Insights

Evidence, not assumption — a continuous reading of what stakeholders and publics actually think.

We work out not only what people think, but why they hold those positions and what it would take to shift them. Qualitative depth — focus groups and in-depth interviews — and quantitative scale — representative surveys and tracking waves — run end-to-end: instrument and sample design, fieldwork oversight, analysis, and clear strategic recommendations. Always-on social listening and media monitoring read traditional and online coverage as a single picture, revealing what perceptions are forming before they harden.

Called in when — uncertainty about the landscape of public, regulatory or elite opinion is causing strategic drift and impacting the effectiveness of communications or advocacy campaigns.

08Events and global forums

Events and global forums

Using high-level convening to shape debate, build relationships and create durable influence.

Convening is one of the most underused instruments of strategy. Done well, it sets the agenda, establishes the relationships, builds the coalition, and creates the conditions for a result that advocacy or communications alone could not produce. Done badly, it is another stop on an oversaturated conference circuit. We design and deliver private dialogues, closed-door roundtables, summit-margin programmes and sustained convening platforms. The work is editorially led, hand-curated and exclusive by design.

Called in when — the right conversation about your issue, cause or country isn’t happening, and you’re prepared to lead it.

09Transaction intelligence

Transaction intelligence

Counterparty, jurisdiction and reputational intelligence for M&A, capital raising and sovereign deal-making.

Transaction intelligence sits across the other eight practices. On a deal, the questions are rarely contained within one discipline. Who is on the other side? What will the regulator do? Where is the political risk? What does the public think? What happens to the reputation of the buyer, the seller, the bank and the chair if this goes wrong?

We support boards, general counsel, family offices, sovereign wealth funds, private-equity sponsors and their advisers from the first conversation through to completion and post-close integration. The work draws on the firm’s intelligence, dispute and regulatory capabilities under one practice.

Called in when — a transaction has a complex multi-phase process that requires due diligence, intelligence gathering, regulatory engagement, strategic communications and reputation management through each stage of the deal.