Business News: Chattanooga law firm adds crisis practice

The Chattanooga law firm of Miller & Martin PLLC has formed a crisis management practice to serve the needs of businesses and organizations throughout all of its markets. The new practice, the first of its kind in Chattanooga, will involve 13 Miller & Martin attorneys, including Don Aho, Roger Dickson, Crews Townsend and Jim Haley in Chattanooga. They will focus on crisis management from preventative planning to management of actual crises. Miller & Martin member Zac Greene in Chattanooga is the practice group leader.

Miller & Martin is including Atlanta-based Jackson Spalding, a marketing communications firm with a specialty in crisis management, to add public relations and media relations resources for its clients' crisis management needs.

"A big part of managing a crisis when it occurs is maintaining strong communications with a business's diverse audiences to ensure that accurate information is shared in a timely manner," Greene said.

Miller & Martin, which will celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2017, has offices in Atlanta, Chattanooga and Nashville, with 130 attorneys throughout the firm.


Darden names Lee as new CEO

Olive Garden's parent company Darden Restaurants promoted Chief Operating Officer Gene Lee to interim CEO after a board takeover by an activist investor last week.

The company, based in Orlando, Fla., said Tuesday that Lee will replace Clarence Otis effective immediately.

The change at the top comes after Starboard Value succeeded in its bid to replace all 12 of Darden's board members with its own nominees at the company's annual meeting Friday. Under pressure from investors, Darden had announced this summer that Otis would step down by the end of this year or when a replacement was found.

Otis had been CEO since 2004.

Darden's management had been sharply criticized for years of declining sales at Olive Garden and Red Lobster, which executives have conceded failed to keep up with changing tastes.

Late last year, Darden announced it would get rid of Red Lobster and focus on fixing Olive Garden. The planned sale of the seafood chain riled up shareholders, but Darden went ahead with it anyway.


Chrysler recalls Durango, Jeeps

Chrysler Group said it is recalling 2014 model year Dodge Durango and Jeep Grand Cherokee SUVs to fix a potential problem with the airbag safety system. The recall covers 184,215 vehicles globally, including 126,772 in the U.S.

An electronic unit in the vehicles -- the occupant restraint control module -- can develop a short-circuit. That may cause restraint systems such as the airbags and seat-belt pretensioners to shut off and airbag warning lamps to illuminate on the dashboard.

Some vehicles are affected, but others are not, Chrysler said. Still, it is asking owners of the vehicles to be sure to use their seatbelts, which even with a working airbag provide the most protection for car occupants.

Chrysler will notify owners about when they can bring their SUVs back to the dealers to have the module replaced.

Chrysler said it is unaware of any reports of injuries or accidents linked to the problem. The automaker learned of the problem from Bosch, the supplier of the module.

Last month Ford Motor Co. recalled about 850,000 2013-2014 model year C-MAX, Escape, Fusion and MKZ vehicles because of the same problem with a Bosch-manufactured module, according to National Highway Traffic Safety administration documents.

Automakers so far this year have recalled a record 50 million vehicles in the U.S., or about one out of every five autos on the road.

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