diff --git a/compiler/ir/backend.common/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/backend/common/lower/EnumWhenLowering.kt b/compiler/ir/backend.common/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/backend/common/lower/EnumWhenLowering.kt
index f432b8fea59..efcc9809fad 100644
--- a/compiler/ir/backend.common/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/backend/common/lower/EnumWhenLowering.kt
+++ b/compiler/ir/backend.common/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/backend/common/lower/EnumWhenLowering.kt
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ import org.jetbrains.kotlin.ir.util.*
  * Replace branches that are comparisons with compile-time known enum entries
  * with comparisons of ordinals.
  */
-open class EnumWhenLowering(protected val context: CommonBackendContext) : IrElementTransformerVoidWithContext(), FileLoweringPass {
+open class EnumWhenLowering(protected open val context: CommonBackendContext) : IrElementTransformerVoidWithContext(), FileLoweringPass {
 
     protected open fun mapConstEnumEntry(entry: IrEnumEntry): Int =
         entry.parentAsClass.declarations.filterIsInstance<IrEnumEntry>().indexOf(entry).also {
diff --git a/compiler/ir/backend.jvm/lower/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/backend/jvm/lower/MappedEnumWhenLowering.kt b/compiler/ir/backend.jvm/lower/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/backend/jvm/lower/MappedEnumWhenLowering.kt
index 0290b7fa631..e56703c86d6 100644
--- a/compiler/ir/backend.jvm/lower/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/backend/jvm/lower/MappedEnumWhenLowering.kt
+++ b/compiler/ir/backend.jvm/lower/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/backend/jvm/lower/MappedEnumWhenLowering.kt
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ package org.jetbrains.kotlin.backend.jvm.lower
 import org.jetbrains.kotlin.backend.common.ir.createImplicitParameterDeclarationWithWrappedDescriptor
 import org.jetbrains.kotlin.backend.common.lower.EnumWhenLowering
 import org.jetbrains.kotlin.backend.common.lower.createIrBuilder
+import org.jetbrains.kotlin.backend.common.lower.irCatch
 import org.jetbrains.kotlin.backend.common.phaser.makeIrFilePhase
 import org.jetbrains.kotlin.backend.jvm.JvmBackendContext
 import org.jetbrains.kotlin.backend.jvm.JvmLoweredDeclarationOrigin
@@ -60,7 +61,7 @@ internal val enumWhenPhase = makeIrFilePhase(
 // The latter would not need to be recompiled if new entries were added before `X`
 // at the negligible cost of an additional initializer per run + one array read per call.
 //
-private class MappedEnumWhenLowering(context: JvmBackendContext) : EnumWhenLowering(context) {
+private class MappedEnumWhenLowering(override val context: JvmBackendContext) : EnumWhenLowering(context) {
     private val intArray = context.irBuiltIns.primitiveArrayForType.getValue(context.irBuiltIns.intType)
     private val intArrayConstructor = intArray.constructors.single { it.owner.valueParameters.size == 1 }
     private val intArrayGet = intArray.functions.single { it.owner.name == OperatorNameConventions.GET }
@@ -141,11 +142,23 @@ private class MappedEnumWhenLowering(context: JvmBackendContext) : EnumWhenLower
                 val result = irTemporary(irCall(intArrayConstructor).apply { putValueArgument(0, enumSize) })
                 for ((entry, index) in mapping.ordinals) {
                     val runtimeEntry = IrGetEnumValueImpl(UNDEFINED_OFFSET, UNDEFINED_OFFSET, enum.defaultType, entry.symbol)
-                    +irCall(intArraySet).apply {
+                    val writeToMapping = irCall(intArraySet).apply {
                         dispatchReceiver = irGet(result)
                         putValueArgument(0, super.mapRuntimeEnumEntry(builder, runtimeEntry)) // <entry>.ordinal()
                         putValueArgument(1, irInt(index))
                     }
+                    val noSuchFieldVariable = scope.createTemporaryVariableDeclaration(
+                        this@MappedEnumWhenLowering.context.ir.symbols.noSuchFieldErrorType,
+                        startOffset = UNDEFINED_OFFSET,
+                        endOffset = UNDEFINED_OFFSET
+                    )
+                    +irTry(
+                        // Ignore NoSuchFieldError in case this module is running with a version of the dependency
+                        // that is missing some of the enum's fields; the corresponding branches are then effectively
+                        // unreachable code (KT-38637)
+                        context.irBuiltIns.unitType, writeToMapping, listOf(irCatch(noSuchFieldVariable, irUnit())),
+                        finallyExpression = null
+                    )
                 }
                 +irGet(result)
             })
@@ -155,7 +168,7 @@ private class MappedEnumWhenLowering(context: JvmBackendContext) : EnumWhenLower
             declaration.declarations += mappingState.mappingsClass.apply {
                 parent = declaration
                 if (mappingState.isPublicAbi) {
-                    (context as JvmBackendContext).publicAbiSymbols += symbol
+                    context.publicAbiSymbols += symbol
                 }
             }
         }
diff --git a/compiler/ir/backend.jvm/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/backend/jvm/JvmSymbols.kt b/compiler/ir/backend.jvm/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/backend/jvm/JvmSymbols.kt
index 078784645a7..0ef70882d68 100644
--- a/compiler/ir/backend.jvm/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/backend/jvm/JvmSymbols.kt
+++ b/compiler/ir/backend.jvm/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/backend/jvm/JvmSymbols.kt
@@ -265,6 +265,11 @@ class JvmSymbols(
 
     val assertionErrorConstructor = javaLangAssertionError.constructors.single()
 
+    private val javaLangNoSuchFieldError: IrClassSymbol =
+        createClass(FqName("java.lang.NoSuchFieldError"), classModality = Modality.OPEN) {}
+
+    val noSuchFieldErrorType = javaLangNoSuchFieldError.defaultType
+
     val continuationClass: IrClassSymbol =
         createClass(StandardNames.CONTINUATION_INTERFACE_FQ_NAME, ClassKind.INTERFACE) { klass ->
             klass.addTypeParameter("T", irBuiltIns.anyNType, Variance.IN_VARIANCE)