Law Practice Management Asked and Answered Blog

Category: Public

Oct 03, 2019

How to Handle the Messaging and Public Relations When a Law Firm Partner Leaves

Question:

Our firm is a twelve attorney litigation defense firm in Phoenix, Arizona. We have eight partners in the firm and I am a member of our executive committee. Yesterday at a partner meeting we were advised by four partners that they were leaving, would be starting a new law firm, and would be taking several key clients that they handle with them. A couple of associates and staff members will be going with them. What do we tell people and how do we go about it? You suggestions are most welcomed.

Response:

My first suggestion is to move very quickly otherwise the rumor mill will get started and rumors will get ahead of you. You must get in front of the message to all audiences. The remaining and the departing partners should meet immediately, come to terms and agreement with the message, and be prepared to answer the following questions:

Who is leaving
Why following
Whether the relationship is contentious or amicable
How the departure is going to effect clients
Whether the departing partners are named partners
Future name of both firms
Where the two firms will be located
Contact information

I further suggest that you:

Plan and advance and drill
Identify your audiences and appropriate messages for each
1. Clients
2. Employees
3. Legal community
4. General public community
List anticipated questions that your audiences will have
White out the answers to the questions
Write out the message for each audience
Designate a single spokesperson to respond to the press and others so that messaging remains consistent from firm management.
Identity clear lines of authority.
Ensure that you follow the rules of professional responsibility in regarding client communications.

Situations such as this can be very stressful for all concerned. Try not to let your personal feelings cloud your vision and get in the way of a properly planned transition. There will be a lot of work to be done on the part of the remaining partners and departing partners. A well designed project plan will be helpful in managing all the tasks that will have to be handled and managed. The public relations should be at the top of the list.

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John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

Dec 13, 2018

Law Firm Marketing – Using an Outside Public Relations Firm

Question:

I am a partner in a three partner five attorney estate planning firm in Seattle. While we have a very active marketing program we would like to do more. We try to do two presentations at seminars/workshops a month. We have a first class website and a proactive SEO program as well as an aggressive social media campaign. The firm is listed in all of the key directories. Our attorneys are active in the legal and local community and are or have been chairpersons on bar association committees and have written extensively and been published. While many of our clients come to the firm via referral from referral sources and past clients, we are noticing that we are receiving much more business from the internet. Recently we have been discussing whether we should consider using a public relations firm. We would be grateful for any thoughts you may have.

Response:

A public relations firm (or person) can be very helpful especially if your firm does not have a point person for marketing – a marketing coordinator, marketing director, etc. You have to decide how you will use such a person and what role you would like them to play. I suggest that you avoid the larger firms and stick with a smaller firm – a three or four person firm – or better yet might be a solo practitioner or freelancer. You might use public relations professional in the following ways:

Write and send out press releases announcing such happenings as new lawyers hired and noteworthy firm and lawyer achievements.
Query media sources for byline article publishing opportunities.
Ghostwrite articles for attorneys in the firm.
Write blog and social media postings.
Write material for the firm’s website.
Obtain client testimonials and write case studies for the firm’s website.
Maintain the firm’s website.

Several years ago I retained a public relations firm for two years on a ten hour a month retainer. A few of their accomplishments included:

Selected client interviews and case studies written for the website.
Newspapers interviews, photos, and stories written by newspaper reporters and included in newspapers in varies varies cities across the country.
Byline articles in ABA Law Practice Magazine.
Byline articles in Legal Management Magazine, Association of Legal Administrators Publication.
Interviews by reporters for content for their stories in legal publications across the country.

Our firm found such services very helpful and from what we learned from them we now are able to handle many of these tasks ourselves.