When Politicians Lie...

.... They get caught.  Toronto Mayor Rob Ford knows that now when he faced reporters earlier this week asking them to re-ask a question they asked him in May. "You asked me a question back in May and you can repeat that question," Mr. Ford told a bunch of journalists earlier this week as reported in The New York Times. He then admitted that he did indeed smoke crack cocaine.  Also last week, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul (R) was accused of plagiarism, denied it and finally this week admitted what happened. (Although to his credit, he also came out with a plan for addressing the situation.) Rolling Stone magazine released their "Top five political excuses of all time" earlier this week and unfortunately we keep hearing these excuses from our elected leaders.

To a political figure there is no worse punishment than a damaged reputation. The longer a person works to cover up something the more damage they will do to their reputation. As a result, here are 5 tips to help politicians out of a sticky situation:

1. Don't lie.  If you do lie or misrepresent something, speak out of turn or make a mistake, quickly admit it, apologize, work to resolve the issue and move on to the next issue.
2. Don't try to cover it up, it will only make things worse.
3. Don't react. Re-evaluate the situation and respond quickly but thoughtfully.
4. Don't dodge the media. Focus on the facts and process.
5. Seek the advice of an attorney and public relations professional before things get out of hand.

five tips to protect your reputation on-line

Monitor On-Line ChatterCreate Google-Alerts and Twitter-Alerts for your name, company’s name and top leadership.

Employ free other services to monitor to monitor your reputation such as: Hootsuite, Alexa, and Socialmention.

Develop Channels of Communication Such as a blog, Twitter, Tawlkin, VMS and Facebook

Establish a crisis communications response team. Know who in and out of your company can respond quickly to an issue.

Engage the community. Just as you do off line, keep those on line engaged in what you do and build support for when you need it.

Preserving a company’s reputation in the wake of bankruptcy

*This article first appeared in the August 15, 2011 edition of Michigan Lawyers Weekly. In bankruptcy, there is more at stake than who gets paid first.

Should a company file for bankruptcy or even begin the discussion, it is important to address the public’s opinion as much as it is to deal with the legal issues.

After all, reputation matters.

Corporate failures today are front-page news. In the first quarter of 2011, 366,178 companies filed for bankruptcy. This was down 6 percent from those filed in the first quarter of 2010.

Today’s economy puts many companies and individuals in difficult positions where they must choose what needs to be done for their economic survival.

Should a company choose to file for bankruptcy, it does not mean they are going out of business or up for sale. In most cases, bankruptcy means restructuring the company to be smarter, leaner and more efficient.

An effective communications strategy provides critical information to key stakeholders at every step in the process and can help minimize risk. Therefore, managing the message as to how a company got to this point, what they are doing to address the problem, and what they plan on doing when they re-emerge are all critical to how people will perceive the company during and after bankruptcy.

In filing for bankruptcy, it is important to prioritize key constituencies and determine the best way to communicate with them. For example, communicating to investors or shareholders may be different in how you communicate with vendors or customers.

Investors want to know how sound their investment will be, if the company plans on staying public, and the plans for emerging from bankruptcy. Customers want to know if their warranties will be honored, where they can go for service or who they can call if they have an issue with the product or service.

Also, vendors want to know their place in all this — if they should continue with their current production or performance and if they will get paid and when.

In communicating a company’s approach to file for bankruptcy, it is important to carefully communicate the reasons why and possible outcomes as to avoid any misunderstanding of the company’s true intention. As a result, transparency and honesty in one’s financial situation is vital to making sure that key constituencies will not read into the companies actions.

Instead, the company must be forthright as to everything they file with the court. That’s because many people following the company — particularly a public one — will likely go online and read the documents surrounding the bankruptcy.

Once the company does file, it is equally important to constantly be in touch with your core constituencies. For example, GM and Chrysler each took us along for the ride as they filed for bankruptcy, announced their restructuring, and emerged as a new company.

Earlier this year, Borders filed for bankruptcy and sent out notices to their customers and investors, ensuring business will go on and service will continue, but changes will have to be made.

And on the day United Airlines filed for bankruptcy in 2002, its CEO flew to Chicago to meet face-to-face with employees. Other executives did the same in Denver, Washington, San Francisco, and other hub cities to reassure the public and their employees that the airline is, and will always be, a viable company.

They did not just send out a news release. After they filed, they took out full-page ads in major papers explaining what they were doing and why. Once they emerged from bankruptcy, they were a new company with their reputation intact.

In communicating messages during a bankruptcy or wherever litigation is involved, lawyers should be given the opportunity to sign off on what is being communicated. At the same time, attorneys must be able to see the big picture as to why the PR counsel is even involved and why they must communicate through the media.

Attorneys need to be open about what is being communicated with the idea that they are working to protect and, at times, enhance the public perception of their client.

At the same time the message is crafted, companies should actively monitor the online chatter about their company and their industry, and work to quell any misinformation being communicated about the company or its employees.

Today, an individual and a company are only as good as their reputation. In general, with the economy the way it is, we understand that in tough economic times, companies as well as individuals may have to file for bankruptcy.

As long as there is honesty and maturity in how you communicate your problems or situation, people will understand. Being upfront and proactive in your actions will help position your company for future success and go a long way to bolstering your individual and corporate reputation, while putting to rest any potential negative ramifications from the filing.

Lawyers savvy enough with the how the media works, and in protecting and enhancing their client’s reputation, understand the interplay between the law and legal process on one hand, and public opinion and business strategy on the other.

And there is benefit to working with experienced PR professionals in creating and delivering the right message publicly, without jeopardizing the legal process or strategy. In fact, the messages that are communicated may lead to successful settlement or reorganization.

A Few Pointers

• Tell your story first.

• Know what you want to communicate  and why.

• Call in third-party supporters to support you.

• Put a human face on the situation.

• Use all the communications tools at your disposal, such as social media and web, as well as traditional.

• Make the story about recovery, not liquidation. For example, focus on jobs and service.

• Focus on what you want the expected outcome to be and stay on message in getting there.

For the full article, visit http://milawyersweekly.com/news/2011/08/12/preserving-a-company’s-reputation-in-the-wake-of-bankruptcy/.  For more information, please contact Daniel Cherrin, an attorney with Fraser Trebilcock, at 313.965.9039 or dcherrin@fraserlawfirm.com.

IN THE PUBLIC EYE: PROTECTING A CLIENT’S REPUTATION

The sands have shifted in the practice of law. Gone are the days when clients were only concerned about the legal ramifications of a lawsuit or legal quagmire. Today, clients are often also concerned with how they are judged in the public eye and perceived by their customers, vendors and by their own families. In protecting a client’s reputation, “an attorney’s duties do not begin inside the courtroom door -- he or she cannot ignore the practical implications of a legal proceeding for the client.” An attorney should take reasonable steps to defend a client’s reputation.

This is particularly important in an environment where news is reported “24/7” and at times even delivered instantaneously to our cell phones. Likewise, with sales of newspapers and magazines at all-time lows, the media is hungry for a story even if no story really exists. Therefore, lawyers must be more diligent in looking at the big picture in protecting their clients’ interests in the court of law as well as in the court of public opinion.

Today’s legal strategies demand public relations

Today’s business environment demands an aggressive strategy to resolve issues legally while protecting one’s reputation publicly. As a result, lawyers need to be more than legal counselors or advocates. They need to be familiar enough with how perception is created within the public eye and how to use the media effectively to manage that perception. Therefore, the potential impact any litigation will have on a client’s image, reputation, investor relations and future business must be considered in creating a legal strategy.

To protect a client’s legal interests and also to preserve the client’s reputation publicly in a high-profile case, defense counsel should consider engaging public relations counsel early in the process, so as to develop a complementary strategy and get advice on how to deal with the media and protect the client’s public relations interests. In developing a broad defense strategy that embraces both legal and public relations concerns, lawyers need to look beyond the facts and include public relations concerns as a comprehensive defense. Public relations counsel can assist defense counsel by managing the public relations issues while defense counsel focuses on the traditional elements of mounting a defense. If both the legal and the public relations components are to succeed, it is essential that defense counsel and public relations counsel coordinate their efforts.

Protecting a client’s reputation

A lawyer who is going to represent a client outside the courtroom must become more comfortable in talking freely about their client’s case. Lawyers, trained to protect client confidences and to control information, have a natural tendency to answer only the questions that are asked and to give no more information than is necessary to resolve the issue. In the view of the public, however, information and communication are the two factors that build trust and go a long way toward preserving one’s reputation.

A public relations counselor can employ specific tactics to protect the reputation of a company or an individual leading a company while reinforcing issues legally. For example, in the public eye, we are presumed guilty if we respond to a reporter’s question with “no comment.” A better way to respond to a question you do not want to answer or are not ready to answer is to deflect it, by saying something like: “That is a very good question, one that we are looking into at the moment. As soon as we learn something new, we will get back to you promptly.” Retaining public relations counsel

The attorney-client privilege is generally preserved in retaining public relations counsel during the course of litigation. However, it helps when your public relations counsel also happens to be a licensed attorney. In fact, public relations seems to be a popular alternative career for attorneys. In any event, defense counsel should exercise care to ensure that any privilege is preserved. It also is preferable that the public relations firm be retained by and report to defense counsel rather than the client. This will help in mounting a coordinated defense and also help to preserve attorney-client privilege by ensuring that all communications pass through defense counsel.

Likewise, public relations counsel should include defense counsel in all stages of communication and consult closely with defense counsel in developing key messages to make sure it complements the legal strategy rather than puts it in jeopardy. Defense counsel should be present during any conferences involving public relations counsel and the client.

Given the stakes in today’s litigation environment, defense counsel may find it helpful to develop a relationship with a public relations firm, so that it can be ready to assist on short notice if and when it is needed. For example, some public relations firms are known for their expertise in crisis and reputation management while others focus more on soft promotions and publicist work. Some public relations firms focus specifically on litigation communications practice, and even have attorneys and registered lobbyists on staff.

Many of the larger law firms have a chief marketing officer that they can rely upon for initial help or guidance, while others have already retained a public relations firm to assist with matters that are beyond the routine. In any event, defense counsel should look for a public relations firm that has relationships with the media, both local and national, on-line, in-print and on-the-air. A useful source of information on public relations firm is the website maintained by the Council of Public Relations Firms at www.prfirms.org.

In preparing for litigation or creating a legal strategy to meet a clients objectives attorneys must consider the impact on their client’s businesses and reputations. Reputations take years to create and only seconds to destroy. Engaging public relations counsel early can create a comprehensive strategy that will help clients – and defense counsel -- succeed.

[i] Gentile v State Bar of Nevada (Kennedy opinion), 510 US 1030, 1043 (1991).