Communication Tools

Legal PR and marketing was a non-existent concept even in the few years after the Bates decision. Another decade elapsed before a stubborn legal profession, especially mainstream law firms, began to surmount its aversion to legal PR and marketing in any practicable capacity. Today, we see at least three issues that define legal PR and marketing.

First, more law firms are seeing the value of sharing their expertise with clients and prospects in the open forums of the media. Legal PR and marketing mean not just getting quoted in the newspaper but doing so often enough to have a positive impact on reputation, and doing so well enough to actually benefit the audiences involved.

Second, legal PR and marketing is about protecting the reputation of law firms threatened in a highly competitive environment where partner defections and malpractice suits can devastate the already delicate operations of a flat partnership.

Third, and perhaps most important, legal PR and marketing can serve a dual purpose of advancing both the lawyer’s reputation and the client’s interest at the same time. Plaintiffs’ counsel know all about legal PR and marketing – how to affect public perception in such a way as to positively affect the outcome of a case, while reminding the world who achieved that positive outcome. Litigation really underscores why legal public relations and marketing is a win-win for lawyers and clients.