Lori Lecker
LAW FIRM: Buchanan Ingersoll PC
CATEGORY: Outstanding In-House PR Professional
WEB SITE: http://www.bipc.com
When Lori Lecker talks to students as vice president of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, she stresses one essential rule for the trade. "It doesn't matter if you're going into a nonprofit, ad agency or law firm; you have to
understand the fundamentals of business," she says. "You need to be experts in it in order to advise companies."
Lecker certainly heeded her own advice when her Pittsburgh-based law firm, Buchanan Ingersoll, had to deal with an economic downturn, with a former client facing criminal charges and with a change in the company's CEO. "We dealt with many
publications, so it was important for me to understand what Buchanan was facing and what the media wanted," she says.
Founded in 1850, Buchanan Ingersoll boomed in the late 1880s and 1890s. When Lecker, a Pennsylvania native, joined in September 2001 following stints at a telecommunications company and an ad agency, her marching orders were to raise the company's
profile. "What attracted me was the importance they placed on communications," Lecker says. "In a law firm, you have experts in everything from government to technology, which offered great opportunities for communications."
But when the economy tanked in 2000, some attorneys left while others were laid off. "When attorneys leave, they tend to take business with them, which the industry picks up on," she says. At the time, the PR department was more focused on clients' events rather
than on broader legal issues.
Around the same time, a former client was facing criminal charges, and Buchanan had to be seen as being above reproach. "We had the law and the truth on our side," Lecker says. "It was important internally and externally that everyone knew what was going on.
We had to communicate to the media quickly and within deadline."
To facilitate internal communications, Lecker launched an intranet. "It's been a tremendous success," she says. "More than 80% of people read it daily. It has fun stories as well as important business stories. The main message is stability and showing the firm has
its eye on the ball."
With a CEO change in 2004, the company strove to emphasize continuity and growth. It was lucky that the incumbent had been the company's COO, unanimously elected CEO by shareholders, Lecker says. By 2005, Buchanan had added approximately 30 new
attorneys and had successfully neutralized any potentially negative fallout from the former client facing criminal charges.
"I learned that you cannot do it alone," Lecker says. "You need a great team that believes in the importance of communications."