WHEN THE MEDIA CALLS YOUR LAW FIRM FOR BAD NEWS

Thinking About The Unthinkable

 

By Richard S. Levick, Esq.

 

For certain people after fifty, litigation takes the place of sex.

-Gore Vidal

 

What do you do when a partner has been arrested?

 

When a partner comes to your office after receiving a message that a national film crew will be in your office in two days to begin interviewing your client?  His market-leading product allegedly blows up and decapitates people!

 

When, while all your competitors are expanding in London, your law firm is the only one to close its office there?

 

When key partners leave?

 

When an unreliable newspaper features allegations against a partner for alleged sexual harassment?

 

When the dot.com horse you have been riding in your multimillion dollar marketing campaign crashes, leaving you holding the buggy whip?

 

For Womble Carlyle, Sonnenschein, Mitchell Silberberg, and Brobeck, along with countless other great firms, these imaginary crises have been all too real.  In some cases, they resolutely handled their disasters in such a way as to not only stem the tide of negative press, but bring about new growth and opportunity as well.

 

  1. Confront Bad News.  Imagine a partner coming to your office for advice after receiving the following voicemail: “We understand your client’s tire inflator product occasionally blows up and decapitates its user. Where should the film crew meet you in two days?”  The situation was further complicated by the fact that the market-leading manufacturer was about to be purchased by a Fortune 500 company.  The press, with its unfounded allegations, would kill the deal.   

    When a litigation partner from Womble Carlyle received just such a message, he chose to tackle the problem head-on.  Even before he called the client, he first contacted his media consultant and they devised the initial strategy.  Then the lawyer called the client, which meant the lawyer was able to present the client with both the problem and the solution. 

    Next, the litigation public relations specialist immediately contacted the television producer and offered to cooperate (rather than ignore the problem).  The offer to cooperate enticed the producer to agree to provide the interview questions in advance, a fairly rare but not unheard-of occurrence.  With the questions in hand, the litigator and client were able to rebut each question with facts.  Because they were responding in a calm, cooperative atmosphere, it became apparent that, while a tire inflator product was known to blow up with incorrect use, no such incident was known to have ever included the client’s product.  In fact, it emerged that the tragic incidences were much more likely tied to a competitive product.  The willingness to deal directly with the producer created trust.  And from that trust grew the cooperation that ultimately killed the story.

    All too often, because lawyers do not have relationships with litigation public relations experts, they lose precious time after a crisis first occurs.  The most important developments in terms of media coverage occur within hours and sometimes minutes after the initial call.  If you are hunting down your litigation public relations team at this point, you have already forfeited options.

 

  1. The Truth Shall Set You Free.  After a partner was convicted a few years ago for fraud and money laundering, the managing partner of a large law firm became its spokesperson.  In so doing, he took the opposite tack from most law firms, which prefer to hide and hope the story will go away.  Next, he took full responsibility, thus sending a signal to his internal audience that the firm would survive the problem, and, to the external audience, that leadership was engaged.  Finally, he sent a clear and credible message which said, “If this can happen here, where we are terrifically vigilant, it can happen anywhere. This is all about the problems that arise when organizations are, perforce, growing by leaps and bounds. We all need to be even more vigilant.”  The message had one huge advantage: it was true. The managing partner won so much respect from the media that, after the initial bad news day, legal publications ran stories flattering to the firm for its honesty and thoughtfulness.

 

  1. Create a Different Story.  When Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal elected to close their London office in the midst of broad UK expansion by American law firms, concern was raised that it would become the media’s favorite example of an American law firm unable to hold its own in a highly competitive market.

    Conceding that they would suffer a bad news day in the London press, Managing Partner Duane Quaini decided on a strategy that changed the story altogether. Immediately after closing the London office (for all the right reasons), Sonnenschein became the sole US sponsor of First Tuesday, a European-based high-profile series of networking meetings for venture capitalists and dot.com executives.  The ensuing landslide of positive press over the next year positioned Sonnenschein as a tech-savvy firm, and overshadowed the memory of the London office closing.

     
  2. The Positive Angle.  When a top partner decided to leave Mitchell Silberberg, the firm feared the negative press that often accompanies the departure of high-profile partners.  Recognizing that the departing lawyer had strong positive feelings about Mitchell Silberberg, the firm asked him to contribute helpful comments to his new firm’s press release.  The resultant press release mentioned Mitchell Silberberg in its second paragraph – and made it abundantly clear that the departure had everything to do with the lawyer wanting to work at a very large firm, and nothing whatsoever to do with any imputed Mitchell Silberberg deficiencies. 

     
  3. No Such Thing as a Local Paper.  When a partner at a San Francisco law firm was accused of sexual harassment in a local tabloid, the law firm elected to ignore the allegations and deflect the story by telling enquiring minds to consider the source.  They did, and soon the story started appearing in mainstream business newspapers and the legal press.  The story took on a life of its own and the law firm looked negligent for ignoring the public warning signs.  The lesson is that there is no such thing as a local paper.  All publications, even on the Internet, have varying degrees of relevancy.  The good news about an over-communicative environment is that non-major publications provide fair warning of what is likely to come.  Ignore them at your peril.

 

  1. Always Market.  In the early 1990’s critics claimed that Howrey Simon was outdated and soon to go out of business.  Within three years it became the third fastest growing law firm on the East Coast.  In 2002, critics applied the same reasoning to Brobeck Phleger & Harrison, claiming its focus on technology and overly aggressive advertising had put the firm in danger.  If it continues to be the forward-thinking firm that it has been for the past five years, Brobeck will survive and prosper – despite its current troubles – just as Howrey did.  In each case, the firm does not shy away from marketing and media because it receives some negative coverage.  Instead, they knuckle down and consider how they can be more forward thinking and more committed to the long term, marketing all the while. 

          

As Robert Ball, a Coca-Cola advertising executive said in 1974, “If we stopped  marketing, you’d forget who Coca-Cola is within ten days.”  Never stop marketing.

 

Richard S. Levick, Esq. is president of Levick Strategic Communications and can be reached at rlevick@levick.com. They have handled the media for more than 150 law firms worldwide.

 

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