When disaster strikes, The Amer­ican Red Cross is there. Its lawyers are, too — at least in spirit. Making sure employees behave ethically and follow the law is hard enough for any company, but the American Red Cross also manages hundreds of thousands of volunteers.

General counsel David Meltzer said the legal department and the organization’s investigations, compliance and ethics unit, which is under his command, place a priority on ethics and compliance training before the next emergency hits.