Media Relations For Lawyers

Agenda

»  Why you should care about media relations »  Primer on media relations »  Your role in the process »  What works – strategies for achieving coverage »  How to handle interviews »  Top lawyer media mistakes »  Leveraging PR for business development

Why You Should Care Type   Ac(vity   Score  Personal  knowledge  Ac(vi(es  

Referral  from  peer   7.5  

In-‐person  scheduled  introductory  mee9ng   6.1  

Creden(aling  Ac(vi(es  

Quoted  as  an  expert  in  the  media   5.5  

Presen9ng  at  a  small  educa9on  seminar   5.4  

Prac9cing  at  a  well-‐regarded  firm   5.3  

Authoring  an  ar9cle  in  the  trade  press   5.1  

Awareness  Ac(vi(es  

Speaking  at  a  prominent  event   4.8  

Featured  subject  in  an  ar9cle   4.1  

Adver9sing   3.4  

In-‐person  casual  mee9ng   3.3  

Ac9vi9es  to  augment  stellar  client  service  and  personal  rela9onships  

BTI Consulting Group study, “The Attorney Hiring Zone: Top Activities to Increase Your Chances for Winning New Business”

Why You Should Care

»  As a group, credentialing activities enjoy a cumulative effect

With  the  “cumula9ve  effect,”  an  aQorney  quoted  3x  in  the  media  can  achieve  nearly  the  same  trust  factor  as  they  would  from  a  single  peer  referral.    

Adding  creden9aling  ac9vi9es    

Trust  factor  

Source: BTI Consulting Group study, “The Attorney Hiring Zone: Top Activities to Increase Your Chances for Winning New Business”

Why You Should Care

»  Economist Intelligence Unit: 10 Megatrends in B2B Marketing

»  B2B marketing (including professional services) is going through a radical transformation

»  Building concrete business through intellectual engagement, commonly known as thought leadership, is becoming the most effective means to attract attention, differentiate capabilities and spur customers to action

»  When marketing to sophisticated clients, it is important to be able to demonstrate expertise and capabilities rather than merely claim these attributes

What is Media Relations?

»  Buy an ad and that’s paid media

»  Talk a reporter into doing a story, and that’s earned media

»  It can establish you and your firm’s reputation as an expert

»  It reinforces your clients’ buying decision

»  How is it changing? •  It’s not just about the media anymore •  You are what you publish •  “In-bound” PR is important •  Traditional media now feeds social/online media

What is News?

»  Timely

»  Identifies a trend

»  Affects a large or specific group – through legislation or regulation, for example

»  Controversial

»  Involves high-profile figures

What is News?

»  Unique

»  Useful – information people in a particular industry need to know in order to make good business decisions

»  Local

»  The first, the last, biggest, smallest, etc. – is quantifiable

Sometimes You Have to CREATE the News »  Journalists usually don’t have the story ideas or knowledge of

the subject that you do

»  They need you to tell them what is news and why

»  What does the media want? •  Easy-to-understand, non-legalese quotes •  Insight into complex legal and business issues •  Story ideas their readers will care about

»  Just because you think it’s interesting, doesn’t mean a reporter will »  Just because you think it’s boring, doesn’t mean a reporter will »  Talk to us about it and we can decide together

Proactive Pitching Process

Idea   Collaborate   Research/Write   Approval   Pitch  

Idea  is  developed  by  aQorney  or  publicist  

Publicist  and  aQorney  discuss  idea  and  strategy  

Publicist  gathers  informa9on  from  aQorney  and  other  sources  and  writes  pitch  

AQorney  reviews  pitch  and  makes  any  necessary  edits  

Publicist  pitches  idea  to  the  media  

Ideas  can  come  from  clients,  your  work,  other  aQorneys,  the  media  

Media Relations Strategies

»  Pegging a pitch to a timely news story/event »  Source filing »  Bylined articles »  Expert analysis »  Responding to a last-minute query »  Profile on an individual or the firm »  Turning a blog post or firm newsletter article into media coverage »  Rankings, e.g. Mid-size Hot List, Most Innovative Managing Partner »  Press releases on major

•  cases, deals

Pegging a Pitch to a Timely News Story/Event (Providing Insight on Someone Else’s News)

Good morning - The SEC today charged Goldman Sachs with defrauding investors in the sale of securities tied to subprime mortgages. The SEC charged Goldman and vice president, Fabrice Tourre, based on their alleged failure to disclose conflicts in a 2007 sale of a collateralized debt obligation (CDO). According to the SEC, investors in the CDO ultimately lost $1 billion. John Doe, a Chicago-based securities litigator with Smith & Brown LLP, says that this case is very interesting for a number of reasons, the least of which is the high-profile nature of the defendant.

Pegging a Pitch to a Timely News Story/Event (Providing Insight on Someone Else’s News)

“This is a particularly interesting case, not just because of the high-profile institutions involved, but also because it addresses the propriety of a common Wall Street practice: taking both sides of a trade,’ says Mr. Doe. “Investment banks frequently act as counter-parties for their clients, and hedge their positions with derivatives, swaps, and other similar products and strategies. They also can assist clients on both sides of a particular trade or transaction. This case raises the question of whether and to what extent these types of activities, which the SEC characterizes as 'conflicts of interest', must be disclosed in order to avoid allegations of fraud. This case could materially impact how business is done on the Street moving forward.” Mr. Doe is available for interviews on the SEC's charges against Goldman Sachs. His bio is below for your reference.

»  Goldman Sachs charges raise fears among investors

»  NEW YORK — Major aftershocks are reverberating down Wall Street after security regulators charged banking titan Goldman Sachs with civil fraud.

»  John Doe, a partner and securities litigator at Smith & Brown law firm in Chicago, says the civil suit filed by the SEC against Goldman could be followed by a criminal suit. “Whenever you have a civil fraud allegation,” he says, “there is a risk that it could be accompanied by a criminal charges.” At this point no criminal charges have been filed.

How the Goldman Case Sheds Light on Hedge Funds In late 2008, when five top hedge-fund managers testified before Congress at the height of the financial crisis, the result was…a lovefest. At the hearing, Representative Henry Waxman…said, “Our four previous hearings have looked at failure. Today's hearing has a different focus. The five hedge-fund managers who will testify today have had unimaginable success.” “The SEC will surely make the case that had it had more information about what these hedge funds were doing it could have caught these traders earlier on,” says John Doe, a securities lawyer at Chicago-based firm Smith & Brown. “But the reality is that these are vastly complicated investment vehicles. Even if they had seen the trades, it's not clear the SEC would necessarily have been able to figure them out.”

Other Coverage Achieved

Source Filing

Stephanie,

I read your article this morning on privacy and was wondering if you planned any further coverage of behavioral advertising. If you write further on this, or if you’d like to do a background interview with a leading attorney in this area, perhaps you would be interested in speaking with XXX.

XXX says the growth in the use of online behavioral advertising is a concern for many consumers, and both companies and legislators alike are still coming to grips with how to use and regulate this powerful tool.

Source Filing

“Lawmakers and companies are having a tough time keeping up with this new frontier of Internet privacy issues. There is also growing consumer unrest about behavioral advertising, leading in some cases to consumer rebellion,” says XXX. “Consumers find this type of tracking intrusive, and businesses are starting to take the consumer reaction seriously.”

XXX’s available for interviews if you’re interested.

Thanks, Lisa

Consumer Groups Say Proposed Privacy Bill Is Flawed A LONG-AWAITED draft of a Congressional bill would extend privacy protections both on the Internet and off line, but privacy advocates said the bill did not go far enough in protecting consumers. This, though, “would be the first law that applies generally to businesses requiring privacy notice, particularly in the offline space,” said XXX, a partner at XXX who heads the law firm’s privacy and information management practice. “This bill represents a sea change.” Right now, XXX said, there is no national legislation governing how companies tell consumers that they are collecting data, but companies do post privacy notices because certain state laws require it. “This bill, were it to pass, would get us closer to the more stringent privacy regimes that we see in other countries,” XXX said.

Bylined Articles

»  One attorney, with background in banking and lending and a clientele of real estate developers, noticed a potential trend that could evolve from a recent change in legislation.

»  We secured a guest columnist opportunity for the attorney with an online, national real estate news site.

»  Just weeks after the article was published online, the general counsel of a west coast investor fund contacted the partner regarding condominium projects in the southeast, the exact topic of his article. When asked by the partner how the GC learned of the firm, she said she had read and kept the article he had written, as she was impressed with his analysis of a topic that was on her radar.

Bylined Articles

»  She said she had Googled the lawyer, viewed the firm’s website, and contacted him. She then flew across the country to meet with him and another litigator with the firm.

»  A few weeks later, the GC hired the firm, paid a $250,000 retainer, and the firm received 200 new litigation matters to begin the relationship--all from one well-placed, well-executed article.

Hindsight Over Condo Sales By Mario Iglesias July 26, 2009

Beginning in the mid-1990s, there was a growing trend in Florida in which average buyers would purchase condominiums during a developments pre-construction phase with no intention of ever occupying the unit. These buyers would sign contracts only to reassign or flip the unit as soon as construction was completed.

This trend, fed by other forces beyond the scope of this discussion, led to an interesting phenomenon in the South Florida real estate market by the time the market reached its peak around 2003. By that time, most new condominium units were being sold to investors (locally and colloquially referred to as flippers) and would never be occupied by the original homeowners.

Mario A. Iglesias is a partner in the Fort Lauderdale office of Roetzel & Andress LPA. He can be reached at miglesias@ralaw.com.

Expert Analysis

BREAKING NEWS: President Obama Expected to Sign Health Care Legislation into Law Tuesday President Obama is expected to sign landmark health care legislation into law on Tuesday, after the hotly debated bill, which constitutes the biggest expansion of federal health care in over four decades, passed the House of Representatives late Sunday night. The following sources are available for immediate interviews:

»  Examining the New Health Care Law: What in-house attorneys need to know

»  “There’s a morass of confusion,” says (attorney), of counsel at

(law firm). »  “Most employers for the foreseeable future will try to keep within

grandfathered status,” says (attorney), a partner at (law firm). “It means you are exempt from a lot of changes in the law but not all.”

»  “In-house counsel need to start looking at plan documents now and thinking about what they need to amend,” says (attorney), a partner at (law firm).

»  “This is bowing to the economic reality that a lot of young kids get out of school and don’t get jobs, or don’t have jobs with health care,” says (attorney), a partner at (law firm).

»  “The 800-million-pound pink elephant in the room is the

regulations that will interpret all this,” says (attorney), a partner at (law firm).

Responding to a Last-minute Query

Hi (attorney), Below is a media opportunity with the Society for Human Resource Management. If you are interested in commenting, we will need to set up a call and discuss your comments, which I will write up for your approval. Or you could email me your thoughts. The deadline is tomorrow at 5pm, so we should do this as soon as possible. Pentagon Child Pornography Case: What it Means for Employers Recent news reports reveal staffers and contractors at the Pentagon were downloading child pornography. What does this mean for other employers? Are companies liable if their employees download child pornography? Should companies state clearly their policy on this issue, or is it common sense for workers? And what can companies do to address this issue? I prefer to do interviews via e-mail because I have a tight deadline.

Pentagon Case Highlights Need for HR to Have Clearer Rules About Internet, Porn Recent news that Pentagon employees and contractors with high-level security clearances were downloading and buying child pornography over the Internet at work points to the need for companies to have more comprehensive policies to ban such practices, said labor attorneys and workplace experts. “Unfortunately, the Pentagon case also is a reminder that some employees lack even the most basic common sense and believe they can do what they want with their employers’ resources,” said Karin McGinnis, an employment and labor lawyer with the Moore & Van Allen firm in Charlotte, N.C.

In addition, the government can subpoena a company to turn over work computers used to download child pornography, McGinnis said. “This means that all of the information on the employee's computer will be in the hands of, and potentially reviewed by … law enforcement,” she said. “Although typically the government will agree to keep the employer's sensitive company information confidential, the employee who accesses child pornography from a company system has created a headache, to say the least, for his or her employer.”

Profile on an Individual or the Firm

Legal Advisor to Senate on Investigation of Wall Street Securities Practices and How They Contributed to the Financial Meltdown Available for Interviews WHO: Gary M. Brown, Esq. is available immediately for on-air interviews to provide analysis and discuss his unique perspective of the Financial Reform Bill. Mr. Brown has been assisting the United States Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) in its investigation of the causes and consequences of the recent financial crisis. In that role, he also advised on portions of the Financial Reform Bill as it related to various proposed amendments to the federal securities laws. He was asked by PSI Chairman Senator Carl Levin (D-Michigan) to provide Subcommittee members and staff with legal advice and analysis regarding securities laws and regulations in support of the investigation. He also assisted in briefing Senators and staff in preparation for PSI's hearings relative to Washington Mutual and Goldman Sachs. Mr. Brown is a shareholder with Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC. WHAT: Mr. Brown is available to discuss the following issues related to the Financial Reform Bill:

Financial Reform and the Bad Republican A G.O.P. Adviser Says He Was Ignored In Favor of Partisanship By DAVID WEIDNER JULY 8, 2010

Gary M. Brown is a self-described dyed-in-the-wool Republican. He worked on the presidential campaign for Fred Thompson. He voted for Reagan, Dole, McCain and both Bushes faithfully.

Despite his pedigree, Mr. Brown, a securities lawyer and law professor, doesn't hold much sway among the party powers inside the Beltway. It's not his credentials that are at issue. It's his stance on financial reform. He thinks there are too many holes, and partisan politics are to blame. That's rankled some of his brethren in the G.O.P. cloth who charge that Mr. Brown is distorting the record.

“I guess I don't sound like a good Republican,” Mr. Brown said.

Turning a Blog Post or Firm Newsletter into Media Coverage

Rankings

Interviews

»  Check with clients for permissions or conflicts

»  Prepare

»  Have key messages written down

»  Talk it over with Jaffe or your in-house marketing team

Interviews

»  “Bridge” the interview from the question you don’t want to answer to the answer you want to give:

•  I can’t tell you that, but what I can tell you is… •  Let’s put your question into perspective… •  The real issue here is… •  I’m not allowed to comment on pending

»  litigation, but what I can tell you is… •  Before we move on to another subject, I want to

»  add… •  Even more importantly… •  There is more to the story, specifically… •  That reminds me…

Top Lawyer Media Mistakes

»  Talking in legalese

»  Never using your firm’s name

»  Failing to recognize that winning in the court of law and losing in the court of public opinion is not a victory

»  Answering only the question

»  Never giving the other side an inch

»  Waiting to return a reporter’s phone call

»  Saying “no comment”

Top Lawyer Media Mistakes »  Acting as if reporters are the enemy

»  Taking too long in building up to the primary point

»  Excerpted from “Media Training 101: A Guide to Meeting the Press” by Sally Stewart

Leveraging PR for Business Development

»  Purchase reprint/distribution rights if necessary (always ask)

»  Send articles to clients, prospects and referral sources – “I thought you might be interested…”

•  BTI study, “The Attorney Hiring Zone,” found that corporate counsel report being even more positively influenced by an attorney’s media quotes/articles when they are transmitted to them from a peer

»  Post to the firm website, including text-only version for SEO

»  Use digital/social media to push the content out – LinkedIn, JD Supra, Martindale-Hubbell Connected, Legal OnRamp, RSS

»  Send to reporters as “background” to establish your interviewing/writing credentials

Leveraging PR for Business Development

»  Send to conference organizers to get you on their radar as a speaker

»  Include in prospect packets, RFPs, and as handouts with presentations

»  Repurpose it as a speech, white paper or book chapter

Michelle Calcote King

michelle@rep-ink.com rep-ink.com