Lawyers use PR too!
Image Source: www.sxc.hu
I have a lawyer friend. Her name is Sharmila and she is currently in London to do her LLM.
Whenever we meet we always talk about food! Until recently, that is.
Yesterday afternoon, after a nice lunch, we got around to talking about assignments — our next favourite topic of discussion — and by default this blog. When I told her about the blog topic, she said something that surprised me for its sheer candidness.
You’re doing a blog on PR and the Law? You should have done your blog on Lawyers and PR. That would have been more appropriate as lawyers and law firms need PR.
I asked her to elaborate and this is what she had to say. In India, lawyers cannot advertise their services. So they depend entirely on PR for their business and clientele.
In fact, to quote Sharmila, lawyers do a lot of ‘PR ing’. This is mainly achieved through:
• Networking through local clubs, and conferences & seminars organised by national and international bar associations.
• Word of mouth wherein a grateful client will recommend his/her lawyer to other people who may need legal services.
• Contributing to newspaper columns by offering legal advice on topics such as infrastructure, nationality & emigration, and finance.
• Appearing on the TV, though this is a fairly recent trend.
• Using blogs to reach out to younger, potential clients. Indian Lawyer is one such blog.
• Big law firms look to recruit lawyers who can bring in high profile clients. If these lawyers come from ‘well-known’ families, it is like a bonus recruitment!
The latest trend in India is for law firms to hire PR agencies for effective communication strategies and its implementation.
Well! This was a very interesting piece of information for me and it spurred me to (re)search for more information on this issue in the UK.
In the UK, there have been a series of reforms pertaining to the legal profession with the Legal Services Act 2007 having implications for the PR profession. The Legal Services Act 2007 has brought in the opportunity for solicitors to ‘team up with non-lawyers and to attract capital for their businesses in a carefully regulated environment’ (Solicitors Regulation Authority).
There are many PR agencies who offer legal PR (as opposed to litigation PR). For example, MConsulting and Kelso PR. Needless to say, there is a lot of scope for PR work to flourish in this sector.
Endnote: In the US, lawyers are allowed to advertise, which opens up an entirely new angle to a discussion on PR and the Law. I came across a US lawyer’s blog titled ‘Real Lawyers Have Blog’. It makes for interesting reading.
Tags: Law, Lawyer, Public Relations
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January 7, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Well that’s interesting: Lawyers can’t advertise their services in India? That’s BIG $$ in the US!! But I suppose India just seems overly restrictive in contrast to the West that enjoys greatly the paradox of “liberal laws.” This, however, I can understand the need for more so than litigation PR. Plaintiffs and defendants in the courtroom have their own representatives in lawyers. They don’t need PR too. But I suppose if lawyers aren’t allowed to “represent” themselves/their services, then PR to the rescue again…lol. Wow, I’m thinking I should really start looking for a job in PR – the need for them seems to permeate every aspect of business society today
January 7, 2009 at 8:00 pm
This was a good post. I enjoyed reading it. Much better than your previous one. As a lawyer myself, I can tell you that I have had to depend of PR, especially when I started out in the profession. Though I would be loathe to call it PR – networking is a much nicer word.
January 9, 2009 at 1:45 pm
I can’t understand why there is such a fuss about lawyers using PR. every profession uses PR. For that matter every person uses PR. So why the big post about the Lawyers Use PR too? But i must say that you write very well.
PS: I’m Hal’s colleague and all of us at the office read your posts.
January 9, 2009 at 6:26 pm
I am based in India and the story that has garnered all the headlines here is the fall of Satyam, one of India’s largest IT firms. Satyam’s Chairman has admitted to fraud of kind and magnitude that almost equals the one at Enron in the US a few years ago.
A fit case for a PR study- how does one go about restoring its image ? By being honest and transparent or trying to gloss over the whole affair? I admit that this concern does not have much to do with PR and the law as such; nevertheless it is an apt subject for a discussion on the ethics of PR
January 10, 2009 at 5:58 pm
I forgot to add:the accounting firm that is believed to have looked the other way while Satyam fudged its balance sheets may also need a large dose of PR along with legal help. Hal is a lawyer. How would he go about this?
This subject has suddenly become topical.
January 11, 2009 at 1:42 am
Dear Hal,
Would you like to respond to The Cynic?
January 16, 2009 at 4:39 am
I was hoping that Hal would respond and am a bit disappointed that he didn’t ( wouldn’t?). I am an engineer by education and practice and have nothing to do with law and PR. I read the newspapers regularly and watch TV( less regularly so). I am begining to get concerned with the style and content of what we are fed by the media.
More often than not it is not information that is presented, but opinion that is forced down our throats. PR by the backdoor?
This is the reason why I have more than just a passing interest in how the case of Satyam Computers and Price Waterhouse Coopers. I would like the message to go out loud and clear- you cannot hope to swim in sewage and come out smellling of eau-de-cologne!!!