As providers of law firm public reputation management services, we want our clients to view us as valued advisers to the firm. Establishing this type of relationship obviously takes a large commitment, not to mention PR expertise, from our firm, but it also mandates a commitment from the law firm to ensure that the PR firm is viewed as a critical component of the firm's marketing department. So, how do you make sure that you are utilizing your PR counsel as effectively as possible? Let's focus on two of the most critical things a law firm can do:
1) Work with your PR firm to establish clear short- and long-term goals at the outset of the relationship. These goals should be monitored through regular weekly communication and reassessed every six months to ensure that they are still aligned with your firm's goals.
2) Ensure -- and this is really critical -- that your PR firm has access to your attorneys and that the attorneys have been briefed on both the PR/law firm relationship and the ways in which the attorneys and their practices can benefit from the relationship. No matter how committed a law firm is to enhancing its public reputation, any PR/law firm relationship is doomed to fail unless it has buy-in from its lawyers.
A great PR firm will be able to take a relatively small amount of your attorneys' time to develop a strategy and actionable tasks that generate positive results. This will allow your firm's attorneys to quickly return to their billable work. The initial ideas and information, however, must come from the attorney who knows his or her practice best. If the attorney is unwilling or unable to spend that time with their PR adviser, then even the greatest PR firm won't be able to help.