Law firms face a unique PR challenge. Typically, they can't talk about their most exciting work. That is, the cases they are trying. They can talk about their wins after the
fact, but that doesn't get the media juiced as much as a headline-worthy comment on a breaking case.
At Townsend and Townsend and Crew, recent PR efforts have shown that creative positioning can help a law firm to toot its horn while still respecting the need for
confidentiality. The law firm has cultivated a cadre of experts from within its own ranks, and has introduced those individuals to the media as credible authorities in their
respective fields of expertise.
Still, it took some doing to reach that point. Andrea Snedeker, the firm's marketing and business development manager who works in close cooperation with outside PR firm
Blattel Communications, recalls that when she first started working with the firm in May 2002 it had no media communications plan whatsoever. "The attorneys didn't really know
what was going on," she says. "[Blattel] had a hard time getting access to the attorneys."
To mop up the mess, Snedeker led an effort to identify key thinkers from the organization. Leaders of the various practice groups tapped attorneys with specific expertise.
Blattel then led these 16 individuals through a three-hour workshop on how to interact with the press, how deadlines work and what it means to speak on (or off) the record.
The firm then started to circulate its "experts" to members of the press. Take Phil Albert, a lawyer with special knowledge of open- and free-source software. With the
intention of building up Albert's practice area, the PR team put out a one-page synopsis of his expertise, and when reporters started calling, Albert put his media training into
action. "He was very responsive, he followed up in writing, he gave them good pithy quotes, and as a result he has developed really good relationships," Snedeker says.
Snedeker has arranged periodic lunchtime roundtables with journalists, and while these powwows have generated a few articles, such meetings work only as door openers. "After
you do that once, it is not really necessary to bring those same reporters back in," Snedeker says. "It's better to focus more on the one-on-one relationship between the reporter
and the attorney after that."
In cultivating such ties, the firm has been careful not to overstep its bounds. The majority of press releases, for example, relate to new partners, acquisitions and office
openings. While Snedeker posts them on the firm's Web site, she does not bother to put them out on the wires. "They are not really all that newsworthy, and I don't want to
inundate reporters with stuff that they could not care less about, because that jeopardizes my more strategic, high-level relationship with them," she says.
The firm has also tried to distinguish itself from a slew of similar firms, though it is an effort that industry insiders say could be misplaced. As a specialty firm with an
emphasis on intellectual property, Townsend and Townsend and Crew often gets lumped in with what are called the "boutique" firms. But with 150 attorneys, Snedeker says, the
boutique label seems unfairly diminutive. So, the firm has sent letters to editors asking that they refer to it as a "specialty" shop, and the firm's literature studiously avoids
the "b" word.
But this may be a wasted effort, says Bruce Campbell, who, as principal of CapMark Consulting, gives business advice to the legal industry.
"I don't think anybody cares," he says. "What does 'boutique' mean? It's people who are narrowly focused. All right. Now, as a potential buyer of that service, what I want to
know is whether they have depth of resources, whether they have a second or third tier of lawyers. If they do, I don't care what you call it."
Nevertheless, the approach taken by Townsend and Townsend and Crew seems to be working. The firm averages 17 media mentions per month, which it says reach an audience of more
than 150,000. More than 50 attorneys, or one-third of the firm, have been mentioned or quoted in the media. Since the PR overhaul began, the law firm has been featured in articles
in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, San Diego Union-Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News and Seattle Times, as well as trade publications such as
Corporate Counsel, The Recorder, MX Magazine and Marketing Management.
Laws For Lip Motion
Lawyers are notorious for choosing their words with care, often frustrating their PR handlers by saying too little in the face of media opportunities. That's hardly surprising,
says Andrea Snedeker, marketing and business development manager at law firm Townsend and Townsend and Crew. "You want to make sure you are not saying something that your client
is not happy with. So you want to balance your relationship with the client and what is going on in the case, alongside what the reporter needs to know and what the public needs
to know," she says. "Sometimes it's just safer for a law firm to just stay away from it."
This takes a PR toll, however, and Snedeker has been working to find a way around the situation. To that end she has positioned her firm's attorneys as expert sources in
specific areas of technology and intellectual property. This allows them a freer hand to discuss issues with the media, without jeopardizing client confidence or
confidentiality.
Lesson learned: If the front door is closed, there is usually a side entrance into the media arena.