If the 1990s was the period in which legal marketing came of age, the current decade is shaping up as a time in which communications and media outreach are taking their rightful place in the law firm world. Firms are realizing that public relations, for example, can play an extremely important role in a law firm’s arsenal of marketing tactics. As author Stephanie Solakian Goldstein says in this thoughtful primer, public relations can “influence industry opinions by reinforcing a firm’s key messages” and can “position a firm as the industry expert.”
The book, Beyond the Brief: Communication Strategies for Lawyers and Legal Marketers, is 214 pages long and is published by Thomson/Legalworks, 2006.
But how does a firm accomplish this task? How does it work with the media to get its message across to its various constituencies – its clients and potential clients, its partners and employees, its prospective hires, and the public at large? The nitty-gritty of law firm media relations is Goldstein’s topic, and she’s well equipped to provide the answers. She is chief marketing officer at WilmerHale, where, among other things, she spearheaded the press strategy surrounding the successful 2004 merger of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering with Hale and Dorr. Goldstein is also one of the relatively few law firm CMOs to have a journalism background. She’s a former newspaper and TV reporter and holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University.
Long on specifics and short on buzzwords
Probably because of her training in journalism, Goldstein’s prose is quite different from that of many writers of business and management how-to books. Goldstein writes straightforwardly and stays away from jargon of all varieties. This book is long on specifics and short on buzzwords. She counsels her readers on what soft drinks not to consume before TV interviews, which publications cover the intellectual property world, and how much a public relations firm will typically charge per month. The book does contain enough high-level discussion of marketing strategy to establish Goldstein’s credibility as a deep thinker, and then she plunges right into the daily details.
- Should a PR person call a reporter or e-mail her?
- Why does a firm annual report normally need six months of preparation time before publication?
- When is it appropriate to go “off the record”?
- Should a firm hire an outside media trainer or do the job in house?
Answers to these and dozens of other questions can be found here, and they touch on issues that might be raised by experienced professionals as well as those of interest to beginning marketers. It’s all here: building a PR team, planning crisis communications, taking advantage of speaking opportunities, developing bylined articles for attorneys.
Goldstein even provides suggested templates for law firm press releases on the opening of a new office and similar commonly occurring events. This is a tool kit par excellence.
Goldstein makes several points of paramount importance to anyone who toils daily in law firm PR:
- Keep the lawyers’ expectations reasonable.
- Try to get the lawyers to think like journalists, and if that fails, think like a journalist yourself.
- Don’t over-promise.
- Public relations is not an exact science.
She tells a story of a “Joe Lawyer” who closed a deal three weeks ago and dictates to the media relations person that the story should appear immediately in the Wall Street Journal. There’s even a funnier “Joe Lawyer” story about an attorney who wrote an article of some 3,000 words and insisted that it be published “right away.” Goldstein’s suggested response is perfect: “I am sure we will get this published somewhere, but the timing could take as little as two weeks or it could take a few months. It all depends on whether or not the publications think your article topic is appropriate.”
Good manners and common sense matter
Another maxim is that PR is not rocket science. Basic notions like common sense, good manners, and an insight into human character are crucial in media relations, and Goldstein clearly possesses all of them.
My only significant reservation about this book relates to its organization and its physical presentation. As marketers and publicists, we care about appearances, and we want to show ourselves in as professional a light as possible. Here, the book falls considerably short of perfection. This is hardly Goldstein’s fault, but the book annoys the reader by alternating between two radically different type faces, one of which is apparently used for the basic text and the other for excursions from the text such as lists, sample press releases, and a series of what I can only refer to as “guest columns.”
Those guest columns – which include interviews with experts like PR consultant Elizabeth Lampert and American Lawyer Media editor Monica Bay – include interesting material, but since they are presented as sidebars in a different type face, they give parts of the book an amateurish feel. It’s as if Goldstein was writing a catalog or a set of speaker materials for a conference, rather than a unitary book.
Still, this remains an indispensable book for law firm communicators of all types and at all levels of experience.
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Reviewed by Jonathan Groner, Senior Communications Counsel, Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC, 