Teamwork between lawyers and the public relations professionals who represent them is both essential and crucial for winning the PR game. Nothing embodies teamwork more then when lawyers with deep insights and understanding of an impending court ruling work closely with a PR person who knows how to pitch their insights to the appropriate media outlets. PR professionals are the coaches who make sure the players are in the best positions to land great media coverage; that’s true teamwork. And putting together the right team means assessing the talent, their capabilities and then working closely together to achieve the desired results.

This type of teamwork has to be established in the earliest stages of a relationship. Like any successful team preparation is crucial. Before you choose a PR firm, you should interview several with your specific goals and expectations in mind for what you most want from your external team. Even more important is to have an idea of how you are going to support those goals. It’s not just the lawyers and the PR professionals that make up the team. The firm’s internal business development and marketing professionals are important assets that should work together to help identify industry trends, client matters and needs that could become good PR opportunities. The PR firm will have plenty of ideas, but it is not living day-to-day in the market the way the firm’s internal teams are.

At the same time, the PR firm should be savvy about how to design and execute your PR strategy. For example, if a major intellectual property decision comes down from a court or if the firm is involved in a high profile deal, the firm’s PR professionals should know whether it’s the kind of news that will impact the general public or whether it will mostly affect the firm’s clients. That will determine the kind of pitch that should be created and the timing of the media outreach. That’s what you can and should expect from your PR firm.