New York Lawyer
August 14, 2001

Q:
I�m an M & A lawyer, and I deal daily with multi-billion dollar deals. A lot of what I do is finding ways to describe the transaction so that it is appealing to shareholders, regulators, Wall Street investment banks, etc.

I think I could be good at crisis public relations � the guy that Tylenol calls on to deal with the media when there�s a product-tampering scare, etc. Where can I find out what firms handle this kind of crisis PR work, and how can I found out more about the people they hire?

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A:
If you�ve grown tired of scripting dog-and-pony shows, you may really be on to something here, marketability-wise. By virtue of having gone to law school and completed rigorous training in situation analysis, risk/exposure analysis, potential problem analysis, decision analysis, written communication and oral persuasion, lawyers are presumed to have strong abilities in roles involving interpersonal persuasion. Therefore, you will see a lot of legally-trained people in all forms of advocacy � public information, public relations, community relations, government relations, constituent relations, lobbying, corporate communications, training and development.

Crisis communications defines a type of activity, not necessarily a type of place. You will find crisis management/communications �experts� in some PR firms, but not all. You�ll find some in advertising agencies and OD (organizational development) consulting firms and in B2B communications firms, in political consulting firms, on corporate legal staffs (denominated as lawyers, often handling a variety of internal and external crises, including strikes, employee relations, sexual harassment, etc.), in designated crisis management firms, and freelancing.

Before you start you search-and-networking mission, stop long enough to see if you really are temperamentally suited to this kind of role. There are a couple of flavors of crisis PR for you to consider. If your thought is simply to carry someone else�s message to the media -- to be �the face,� the spokesman or the lightning rod -- your background should include (as yours does) a lot of platform experience and public face-time. This group of crisis PR consultants may include speechwriters, personal presentation consultants, ex-media flaks and a lot of former press secretaries,

Crisis communications can also go beyond just being articulate and persuasive. It can involve a more substantive role focused on understanding the strategic and tactical implications of untoward events, not just �dealing with the media� after the wheels come off. It can involve anticipating and/or heading off potentially-damaging events. Substantive crisis management can be both proactive and reactive, and often requires a deep and subtle understanding of the business. This kind of consulting role (whether as an internal staff person or not) requires more than a fast mouth and smooth delivery; it requires assessing variables, options and consequences at high speed, thinking through secondary, tertiary and subsequent implications, and explaining things to very different constituencies with very different informational needs. It requires you to make reasonably accurate decisions on the fly, stay cool as others get hot, avoid being sucker-punched by clever media types, coach managers and executives on how to deal with the media, and love stress and chaos.

By the way, a lot of crisis communication isn�t necessarily targeted at external audiences. A lot of it involves internal communications to quell nasty rumors and deal with corporate cultures run amok. In such cases, the corporate communications department usually gets the nod � after conferring with the legal department, the HR folks, the employee relations expert, maybe an ombudsman or two, stressed senior management, and a variety of other folks who -- feeling at risk -- have a vested interest in sticking their fingers in the pie.

Assuming this all still looks good to you, it�s time to hit the Web. You won�t have trouble finding entry-points for your research. Grab any ol� search engine and type in some key words. For example, I typed �crisis communication consulting� in Ixquick, and it showed me 54 solid leads from �at least 17,720,910 matching results.� The first page included a listing for The Center for Advanced Media Studies: Media Response Training and Crisis Communications Seminars. It listed a whole bunch of firms that claim particular expertise in crisis planning, employee communications, image management, campaign design, issues management and strategic communications consulting (I say �claim� because skill at tooting one�s own horn doesn�t automatically mean the company has the expertise and experience to stand out from the crowd).

Pull up a few leads, look at their sites and start networking. It�s old-fashioned, I know, but use the phone for making initial contacts. Remember these people are looking for people with solid oral skills and confident self-presentation. Have samples ready of your stuff � written stuff for sure, but also audio or video tapes, if possible. If you�ve ever done a contingency plan, have it ready to show off. Try for some diversity in your self-marketing samples � situations where the goal varied: were you trying to . . . Inform? Instruct? Explain? Defuse? Amuse? Reassure? Negotiate? Impress? Threaten? Overpower? Build rapport for the future? Crisis communications draws on all these voices, so be sure you can prove your ability to sing in a lot of keys and dance a variety of steps.

Sincerely,
Douglas B. Richardson
President, The Richardson Group