The term legal PR can mean either PR for lawyers and judicial professionals or litigation PR, which refers to the effort of protecting the client’s reputation during a judicial dispute. In 2003 a famous American communication agency gave a definition of legal PR that has become a reference. According to that communication agency legal PR is: the management of the communication process during the course of any judicial dispute or adjudicatory processing so as to affect the outcome or its impact on the client’s overall reputation. In fact, legal PR is mainly concerned with protecting the client’s image and reputation when involved in a dispute that leads to a trial.
Thus, we can consider it as being the management of the media impact on the reputation of those involved in a judicial dispute. Generally, the greatest practitioners of that field have two key competencies, which are a very good understanding of the legal process; in fact they should be able of influencing the outcome of the court case by encouraging early or favourable settlement or by pressuring the prosecution into bringing lesser or no chargers. The second key competence is that those practitioners should also be endowed with a sharp awareness of what makes a good story in order to protect the client’s reputation before and during the trial. An essential aspect of that reputation management is influencing attitude about the individual and corporation, which can encourage positive activation to the benefit of the organization.
Legal PR is generally associated with mass media, in so far as plaintiffs and prosecutors have long used mass media to convey their side of the story to the public. Nevertheless, the formal practice of litigation PR, which is sometimes considered as a sub-specialty of crisis communication, first emerged in the early 1980s. Since then, the need for litigation PR has grown tremendously as media coverage of court cases and the law has increased.
Most parties to a lawsuit have important interests that expand beyond judicial concerns. One of the most important cases that considerably helped developing Legal PR was O.J Simpson’s famous trial, which occurred at the end of the 1980′s and early 1990′s. Thus, parties to cases, whether civil or criminal, cannot ignore the impact of negative publicity on public opinion. However, if you need the services of a skilled Legal PR agency, there are many of them up and down the country.
Legal PR is generally associated with media, in so far as plaintiffs and prosecutors have long used mass media to convey their side of the story to the public. Nevertheless, the formal practice of litigation PR, which is sometimes considered as a sub-specialty of crisis communication, first emerged in the early 1980s. Since then, the need for litigation PR has grown tremendously as media coverage of court cases and the law has increased.
Most parties to a lawsuit have important interests that expand beyond judicial concerns. One of the most important cases that considerably helped developing Legal PR was O.J Simpson’s trial, which occurred at the end of the 1980′s and early 1990′s. Thus, parties to cases, whether civil or criminal, cannot ignore the impact of negative publicity on public opinion. If you need the services of a Legal PR agency, there are many of them up and down the country.
Jeffrey Nevil writes on a number of subjects including legal PR. To read more information about professional services PR see www.maltinpr.com/public-relations
