Public relations executives have always had a love-hate relationship with lawyers. While communicators love to avoid litigation and scandal involving their organizations, they hate to say “no comment” in a crisis.
And, historically, “no comment” was what lawyers often recommended PR say to the media and the public in a crisis. But times have changed. As the public trust in corporate America has eroded and “transparency” has become a buzzword in crisis communications, silence has come to be seen as less than golden.
And, for the most part, legal eagles now understand the new crisis communications dynamics. Sherry Treco-Jones of Treco-Jones PR has been working with clients in crises since the ’80s. “Back then, we went toe-to-toe with lawyers during a crisis,” says Treco-Jones. Now, she says, for the most part lawyers and PR are on the same page and understand that they’re working toward common goals.
Bob DeFillipo, head of global communications at Prudential Financial, puts his partnership—and he calls it that—with his legal department this way: “When we sit down and talk about how to address a crisis, we always factor in reputational risk along with financial risk or business risk,” he says. “Reputational risk is just as serious an issue as the other two.”
But sometimes reputation and legal issues do clash, says Larry Gottlieb, economic development director of Westchester County, N.Y., and former managing director of public affairs at Burson-Marsteller. “There’s a meeting of two forces,” says Gottlieb. “PR is responsible for protecting the brand identity, and legal is responsible for protecting the assets themselves. A good communicator sees that the two are not mutually exclusive, and a good lawyer will see that, too.” Yet the delineation between those responsibilities are often the cause of friction, says Gottlieb.
That’s why ground rules—and a good relationship—must be established before a crisis. “There needs to be mutual trust in a crisis,” says Gottlieb. “If there isn’t, oftentimes PR professionals are told what to say rather than shaping the message themselves.”
SEAT AT THE TABLE
For a communicator to shape messages in a crisis, a key enabler is the CEO, says Treco-Jones. Without C-suite and board acknowledgement of the importance of communications, common ground with legal is difficult. “Your contributions must be respected,” says Treco-Jones. “Optimally, you need to work directly with the CEO for the best success.”
With that in mind, Gottlieb says you need to take a hard look at the personalities and backgrounds of key internal stakeholders way ahead of any crisis. “If your CEO is more disposed toward legal-based actions because he has a law degree, you know how far you’re going get with an opposing argument,” says Gottlieb. In the rare instance of going before board members during a crisis, Gottlieb says your task is even tougher. “People on the board will have legal backgrounds and, in general, boards are hugely business-risk averse.”
Indeed, having the C-suite’s support in a crisis is key—and was never so critical when in late 2009, pirates captured an Industrial Shipping Enterprises Corp. (ISEC) ship off the coast of Somalia, holding 28 crew members hostage (see PRN 01/25/10 for a full case study). Tom Rozycki, SVP at Cubitt Jacobs & Prosek Communications, worked closely with ISEC’s CEO James Christodoulou in defining messages and goals during the crisis, and worked with legal.
Rozycki admits that at first their legal counsel’s advice was to go into lockdown mode. “Their feeling was that if we don’t say anything we can’t into more trouble,” he says. But total silence just wasn’t an option, not with lives at stake. So with some give and take, Rozycki, Christodoulou and the legal team from Seward & Kissel LLP came to an agreement.
“The families of the hostages were most important,” says Rozycki. “So we all agreed to communicate mainly to them. If we did that, then we wouldn’t need to publicly, at least, communicate to other stakeholders.”
Seward & Kissel’s Larry Rutkowski, who worked on the crisis, says that while legal discussions were sometimes heated, his firm knew that some moves during the crisis would be very risky. “Part of my job is to guide the client in ensuring that the appropriate message that needs to be delivered gets delivered,” says Rutkowski. “But PR people are much more adept than I am in crafting that messaging.”
From his experience with the piracy crisis and others his agency as handled, Rozycki says he can see where the breakdowns take place in other notable crises. “I can spot where legal, communications or operations differ on messages,” he says. “And the media seizes on those inconsistencies. If everyone is in lockstep, negative coverage can be avoided.”
STANDING GROUND
To help further avoid communications/legal friction, here are some best practices from the experts:
• Rozycki: Be open-minded. “If you don’t come into a crisis meeting with a collaborative mind-set, you’ll be asked to leave,” he says.
• Rutkowski: Do your homework before a crisis. “At Cubitt Jacobs & Prosek ( Rozycki’s agency), we did a seminar about certain issues that can crop up in the maritime industry,” says Rutkowski.
• Treco-Jones: There are some issues during a crisis that are none of PR’s business. “There are things that are between the lawyer and the client that are privileged. Don’t take it personally,” she says.
• DeFillipo: Treat meetings with legal as learning experiences. “We’ve learned a lot from our lawyers, and I think they’ve learned some things from us, too,” says DeFillipo.
Ultimately, interacting with legal in a crisis is a dance, and you should be prepared to be the lead. “You have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable,” says Gottlieb. “Comfortable with getting the voice of the public into the conversation, and uncomfortable when opposing legal’s advice, because it can be a battle.” PRN
[Editor’s Note: For more articles on crisis comms, visit the PR News Subscriber Resource Center at prnewsonline.com/subscriber_resources.html.]
CONTACT:
Sherry Treco-Jones, [email protected]; Larry Gottlieb, [email protected]; Tom Rozycki, Tom Rozycki, [email protected]; Larry Rutkowski, [email protected]; Bob DeFillippo, [email protected].
Quick to the Core: Forming The Ultimate Crisis Team
When preparing for a crisis, putting together a small core team of people who can act with complete confidentiality and make quick decisions is critical. When the ship Biscaglia was hijacked off the Somali coast, 45 people were on the first crisis conference call, says Tom Rozycki, SVP at Cubitt Jacobs & Prosek Communications. After that call, the team was whittled down to eight. Sharon Treco-Jones of Treco-Jones PR says a team of three to four works best. Here are her core team tips:
• A core team should include the head of an organization, legal counsel for the organization, the head of operations and the public relations professional. Sometimes, risk management is involved and/or a board chair.
• The core team members may be liaisons with others as needed, i.e., if they are crucial to understanding important information and/or needed to help make certain types of decisions.
• Help your CEO evaluate any other team members based on their personal agendas and relationships, and ability to keep confidences.
• Everyone will have a different point of view that will enrich the process and final product.