"Where we're not wrong or where the cost of settling is so much that it is totally disproportionate to the harm or the error that we made, we're not going to settle"
About this Quote
Lee Scott is doing what big-company leaders do best: translating a moral stance into a negotiating strategy, then selling it as principle. The line has the cadence of righteousness ("we're not wrong") but it quickly reveals the real governing metric: leverage ("the cost of settling"). It is less a defense of truth than a defense of precedent.
The key move is the pairing of innocence with proportionality. Even if the company did err, Scott suggests, the response must be priced against the "harm" - a framing that quietly recasts accountability as an actuarial exercise. That language is not accidental. It shifts the story from people and impact to scale and comparables, the terrain where a corporation feels most at home and where its lawyers are strongest. "Disproportionate" is doing heavy lifting: it implies there is a reasonable, almost scientific price for mistakes, and anything above it is opportunism.
Contextually, this reads like a public-facing message aimed at two audiences at once: plaintiffs and regulators who might think settlement is inevitable, and shareholders who want reassurance that management won't write blank checks to make headlines go away. The subtext is deterrence. Refuse to settle when you can, even when you're not perfectly right, because settling can invite more claims, embolden critics, and turn every dispute into a toll booth.
It's a corporate version of credibility politics: draw a hard line not just to win this case, but to shape the next thousand.
The key move is the pairing of innocence with proportionality. Even if the company did err, Scott suggests, the response must be priced against the "harm" - a framing that quietly recasts accountability as an actuarial exercise. That language is not accidental. It shifts the story from people and impact to scale and comparables, the terrain where a corporation feels most at home and where its lawyers are strongest. "Disproportionate" is doing heavy lifting: it implies there is a reasonable, almost scientific price for mistakes, and anything above it is opportunism.
Contextually, this reads like a public-facing message aimed at two audiences at once: plaintiffs and regulators who might think settlement is inevitable, and shareholders who want reassurance that management won't write blank checks to make headlines go away. The subtext is deterrence. Refuse to settle when you can, even when you're not perfectly right, because settling can invite more claims, embolden critics, and turn every dispute into a toll booth.
It's a corporate version of credibility politics: draw a hard line not just to win this case, but to shape the next thousand.
Quote Details
| Topic | Decision-Making |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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