Sing Your Praises (to Me!)
As a legal PR professional, like any other professional, I want to do my job as well as I can. But, I can’t do it without the help of my clients. We want to be able to showcase all of the great things that our lawyer clients are doing and to make them look as good as possible, as often as possible. And can’t do much of anything to help them succeed unless we know what they’ve been doing, what cases they’ve been pursuing and what victories they’ve had. So, during this season of gratitude and giving, please keep us in the loop and share some love with us.
It’s like the themes of so many songs: You and I must make a pact. Let’s stay together. We know that you’re taking care of business and feeling those good vibrations every day. We fully appreciate that you work hard for the money and that time is not always on your side. But while you’re working for your clients, don’t you forget about me. If you lose me, your devoted PR person, you lose a good thing. Don’t say you don’t remember me; in fact, I’m looking through you, and you still say you won’t see me. Instead, put a little love in your heart, and I don’t mean tainted love; I mean a whole lotta love, more love and more joy than age and time could ever destroy.
In the law firm context, that means that lawyers and PR people need to open the communications channels and keep them open. Even if its’ a situation in which we can’t engage in media interviews for business or ethical reasons, we still need to know about it.
For example, nearly every major scandal or national news story brings in lawyers who represent clients connected to it. Think Harvey Weinstein or the Trump Russia allegations. Suppose a lawyer in your firm quietly represents a client in one of those matters. He or she should tell the PR and marketing team – not to bring about publicity but to ensure that the firm is proactive and acts, not reacts. A law firm that represents a company linked to Weinstein, for example, shouldn’t have any of its lawyers talking about the scandal, even indirectly, to the press. But how do they avoid doing this unless the PR team knows about the representation?goo
As a great philosopher once wrote, and sang, “You know we’ve got to find a way to bring some lovin’ here today. Talk to me, so you can see what’s going on.”