Public relations has always been about maximising a business or brand’s voice to make them stand out from the crowd. Whether that be through wide media coverage or niche and specialist publications relevant to the brand’s industry, PR can make all the difference in positioning a business as a perceived leader in its field. But what is legal PR, and how does it differ from traditional PR methods?
Wherever lead generation is critical for business growth, PR can make all the difference. But in the legal sector where time really does mean money, enlisting the support of a specialist legal PR agency to take on some of the burden for business development also makes astute financial sense as it allows fee earners the chance to concentrate solely on what they do best.
To a specialist legal PR agency, the size of a client does not matter, it’s what they have to say that counts. Utilising someone’s existing expertise to join, or even drive the conversation, will ensure that a firm remains at the front of mind with prospective clients. Put simply, let your legal PR team cast out the fishing lines, for your lawyers to then reel in the catch.
What is legal PR?
Legal PR uses a wide range of traditional and digital PR techniques to both establish a strong brand and create new business leads, whilst also protecting public image wherever necessary. This can be done in a variety of different ways depending on the strategy of the firm and its overall communications objectives. Legal PR channels can include:
- Strategic communications/Traditional PR – drafting then securing the publication of thought-leadership articles within target trade magazines and industry-specific publications on behalf of, or in conjunction with senior partners and key solicitors.
- Media relations/Digital PR – securing the publication on high domain websites (such as news and media sites) to build backlinks to the law firm site and improve their SEO performance
- Internal communications – keeping employees motivated, engaged, and loyal through consistent internal messaging via a combination of email communications, intranet, newsletters, audio/video messaging, or engagement schemes.
- Crisis communications – the misconception about crisis communications is that you only need to consult PR professionals the moment a crisis occurs in your law firm. Instead, firms should have a crisis strategy in place that ensures that bad publicity can be tackled quickly and with consistent messaging should it ever occur. Establishing strong relationships with stakeholders and the media is essential to this.
- Community relations – legal PR that both celebrates and builds upon a firm’s position within its local community through events, charity fundraising, coverage in local newspapers, etc.
- Public affairs – the building of relationships with key decision-makers, such as politicians and government officials. A law firm must be able to demonstrate an understanding of the law as it evolves over time in order to build trust with their clients, which can be done through company blogs and article publication throughout the wider media.
- Online and social media communications – this is becoming more important for legal PR strategy, as customers are increasingly undertaking thorough online research before making a purchase decision. A competent legal PR professional will always consider what company messaging needs to be communicated via social media, and which platform (whether it be LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook) is the best place to publish it.
Why does legal PR often get a bad rep?
The media often portrays PR professionals as unscrupulous individuals who will stop at nothing to either get a headline or keep their client’s misdemeanours from hitting the front page. It makes for a compelling drama, after all. But in the real world is not like an episode of ‘The Think of It’, and it’s most certainly not all about the ‘spin’.
PR agencies for law firms are generally a lot more measured in their approach, and gentile in their methods. The keyword here is ‘trust’. Any potential client will need to have trust in their legal advisor, so adopting a sensationalised attitude towards publicity would do absolutely nothing to boost business prowess. Legal PR is more a matter of profile-raising, both for law firms, and the lawyers who work there. Positioning them as open, honest, and most importantly trustworthy and experienced.
Minimising the impact of bad news, such as poor financial results, or accusations from disgruntled former employees can take up a small proportion of a legal PR firm’s fee, but often, it’s more about opening doors rather than hiding away behind them.
Attitudes to legal PR will differ considerably. Some firms choose to employ specialists in-house, some will lump it in with the wider marketing function, and there are those who believe it to be the responsibility of a senior partner. They are the ones with the knowledge, after all. But concerningly, they are also the ones with limited time, whose knowledge would be better utilised supporting their clients and bringing in the fees.
There are of course many who don’t bother with legal PR at all because they believe they have enough success with networking and word of mouth alone. Why spend the budget when business is still coming in? What difference will it make to a firm’s fortunes?
Word of mouth is brilliant. In fact, it is the very basis of what legal PR is. But why would you limit yourself to speaking to three people at a networking event, when you could speak to thousands by employing specialist legal PR tactics?
What are the benefits of legal PR?
Some of the benefits of legal PR include (but are not limited to):
- Increasing brand awareness in a highly saturated and competitive industry.There are currently just under 12,000 law firms operating in the UK, so making a firm stand out against its competitors can be challenging. Legal PR can help promote a law firm’s unique selling points and attract the exposure needed to help differentiate it from other firms. This, in turn, should ensure that it remains at the forefront of potential customers’ minds as and when they decide to hire a solicitor.
- Establishing a law firm as ‘industry leaders’. One way to make a law firm stand out from its competitors is by showcasing a particular solicitor’s or partner’s skills or in-depth knowledge of legal practices. By creating a media persona for specific personnel based on carefully curated opinion or advice articles within key media outlets, legal PR can help establish a law firm as ‘knowledge leaders’ within their fields of law. This creates a more positive public perception of a brand for both customers and other legal professionals.
- Improve a law firm’s website SEO and performance.This is only relevant if a law firm decides to include digital PR as part of its outreach strategy. Here, success is measured partially by how many backlinks (links to your site from other reputable and ‘high domain authority’ websites such as news sites) a firm’s website gains after a campaign is complete. Backlinks are one of the most important factors for improving SEO performance, as the more quality backlinks a law firm website has, the higher its website will spear in search engine rankings.
Having a point of difference will have an impact on the bottom line for the simple reason that it is exponentially easier to win more work when you are known for being good at it. That is where legal PR pays dividends.
It might be that a firm is well known for a particular type of legal specialism, but that might not be what it wants to be known for. Equally, the firm might be looking to boost the profile of more junior members of the team to bolster their client numbers. Targeted legal PR campaigns will establish specialisms, champion individual know-how, and encourage a wider understanding of core offerings.
Well executed legal PR should champion individuals as well as a firm. This is significant because it:
- showcases an acute understanding that people want to deal with people, not just corporate machines
- establishes personality, setting the stall for the kind of people and practice that a potential client would be buying into
- raises awareness of individuals in specific markets to improve directory rankings e.g. Legal 500, The Law Society
- Celebrates skill within the team, buoying morale, and rewarding hard work and loyalty in a very public manner
- Attracts new talent into the firm, positioning it as an employer of choice
Can legal PR help combat any bad publicity my law firm encounters?
Of course, having media specialists on your team is not only beneficial for celebrating successes, but also when things go array. Numerous contentious issues might blight both a business and its clients and it pays to have a legal PR professional and not a novice in charge of your comms when they arise.
Effective crisis communications takes planning and structure, plus an understanding of both how the media operates, and the legal and reputational ramifications of mismanagement. Because of this, specialist legal PR agencies are a valuable resource to have when responding to negative events, as they can provide an objective, impartial perspective, without distracting from the core business objectives.
Specialists in legal PR agencies can assist with overcoming any media onslaught by assessing the situation and crafting bespoke key messages for both internal and external audiences. This can help salvage a firm’s reputation and rebuild trust in time.
What makes good content for legal PR?
The law cuts through everything, so there will always be a demand for expert commentary.
If as a lawyer, you have garnered a reputation as an expert in your field and can explain the complexities of your work in straightforward language, it will only serve to bolster both your personal reputation and that of your practice.
That’s not always as simple as it sounds though, as most lawyers will be more comfortable with conveying the letter of the law amongst their peers rather than decoding the language used for public consumption. Plus taking time out in an attempt to do so is time away from fee-earning work, which is simply not practical.
Any experienced legal PR practitioner should be able to take a brief from a lawyer, interpret the main points and decipher what the key messages will be for any given audience. This takes an understanding of the media, and the specific titles being targeted, as well as what elements from any legislation will make headlines. Whilst it will often be the more niche or quirky nuances that will most likely pique media interest, it is the legislative intricacies that will make up the bulk of the story, and legal PR is all about selling all these messages convincingly to the target audience.
For example, we once received a brief asking whether copy could be written regarding solar panels and the legalities of installation. It’s a subject that may seem uninspiring at first glance or even one that has been covered umpteen times before. However, there are nuances within the legislation which does in fact make this a newsworthy topic. That will give the copy a hook for the media, and enable us as legal PR specialists to position the firm involved as an authority in the matter at hand. The news hook in this instance? That you can install solar panels in fields, making them an attractive proposition for farmers. Unless that is, the farmer has goats. If there are goats, solar panel installation is not permitted. And why? Because goats can jump and climb with enough force to destroy panels in a way that no other animal could. It was this quirk that garnered interest from trade journalists and allowed us to showcase just how knowledgeable our client was when it came to this perhaps otherwise innocuous subject.
For any PR professional finding the angle for a story is our bread and butter, but for legal PR specialists, an innate understanding of how law firms operate makes sourcing and exploiting those niches a far more efficient process.
What should a legal PR strategy look like?
Any law firm looking to improve its PR efforts should start by establishing a clear strategy. This should provide a clear roadmap for what both the firm and PR agency are wanting to achieve; how they are planning to reach their goals; and what the barometers for success are.
Legal PR should be considered as an intrinsic part of a law firm’s business development and marketing plans, enhancing the other workstreams rather than functioning independently to achieve maximum impact.
This means that stakeholder buy-in is essential and that all potential spokespeople are fully briefed and understand what input will be expected of them. Any experienced legal PR professional should be able to suggest potential angles based on the current news agenda, but also assist in bringing a partner’s vision to life by giving even the most technical of legal subject matters a voice outside of usual legal channels.
It is important to manage expectations, however. A client hoping to become a spokesperson in broadcast media may find themselves disappointed unless they are happy to express strong opinions on political or social matters. That doesn’t mean that they won’t be able to carve out a presence within print and digital through carefully targets comms though. Recognising niche angles will be critical, but legal PR specialists should be adept at defining and delivering upon such opportunities.
What can go wrong with legal PR?
Enlisting the support of an experienced legal PR agency does not mean that the sole responsibility for profile-raising or lead generation has been outsourced. Although legal PR will free-up fee earners to concentrate on their day job to some degree, they will still need to invest some time into really engaging with their agency to get the best from them.
All PR is built on having good relationships, both with clients and with the media. But legal PR differs somewhat, purely because of the detailed and complex nature of the content being produced. This will mean that an agency will need frequent access to spokespeople to pick their brains and get approval on campaign concepts or copy. It’s also worth bearing in mind that journalists often have very short deadlines, and if they are kept waiting because a lawyer is unable to sign off or advise on a piece of work, that relationship will be ruined, and the practice won’t feel the benefits of its investment.
It’s also vital to be clear about who the target audiences are. Gaining coverage that isn’t targeted might boost someone’s ego, but if it doesn’t have the potential to reach decision-makers looking to enlist legal services, then it will have been a waste of time.
Audiences will naturally vary depending on a firm’s specialism, but the relationship between its internal stakeholders and legal PR agency personnel will be crucial for defining just who should be targeted. This in turn will affect both the key messages and the media approach. For example, an audio-visual message from a managing partner might be appropriate for announcing an office move, but an exclusive in a tier-one trade publication would be more relevant for the bespoke analysis of a specific piece of legislation.
It is the responsibility of the specialist legal PR team to advise on the best way to achieve maximum impact and maintaining an open dialogue will be key to that. Challenging a client that idea is not newsworthy or will not have the desired effect within the target demographic is difficult. But this is where trust and strong relationships come to the fore. Let the lawyer concentrate on understanding the letter of the law and trust the legal PR expert to achieve visibility where it is most needed.
It may feel unnatural to agree to PR initiatives that haven’t been subjected to due diligence but delaying concepts can result in missed opportunities. Joined up thinking can help ensure effort is directed proportionately, and that neither fee-earners nor their communications teams are going off on a tangent.
Media training is often invaluable for conveying to lawyers the different ways in which media outlets operate, what journalists are looking for, or what social media can bring into the mix. This can help them to better understand what impresses editors or appeals to their readership. For example, not being afraid of having a strong opinion or having the ability to approach a commonly reported matter from a different perspective will reap rewards. Refusal to commit to a point of view will not make headlines, and certainly won’t boost visibility in a crowded or competitive market.
Legal PR professionals will expect a collaborative relationship with their clients. They will need to be allowed access to a firm’s strategic planning to ensure all PR activity is effective, timely, impactful, and meets the demands of key media outlets.
How does legal PR work within new media formats?
20 years ago, legal PR would have primarily consisted of press releases about business growth, new client wins, recruitment, or interesting cases. Anything bigger may have warranted a press conference, and media engagement would have mostly been done over long, wine-fuelled luncheons. But the media landscape has dramatically changed since then, and the PR industry has had to adapt to keep up.
These days it’s more about working smarter. Selecting the right content, for the right medium, and the right time. Making one story idea work for numerous platforms and understanding that time is precious, not just for lawyers, but the wider commercial world.
Blanket press releases no longer really serve a purpose, but data-driven content and infographics will hit the mark for online news sources and bring in those all-important backlinks to a firm’s website.
But whilst the explosion of social media has altered the pace and feel of communications, it would be unwise to assume that all the basics have gone to the wayside.
While digital platforms such as podcasts, blogs, or social media have made it simpler for law firms to push out relevant content, this hasn’t entirely eclipsed the importance of placing articles in the traditional press. Because if anything, where legal PR is concerned, the kudos and credibility that comes with print can be equally as valuable for both internal morale and external engagement.
Often, these trade or sector-specific publications will also have website equivalents, that may not be restricted by word counts in the same way. This allows legal PR professionals to create more analytic or in-depth content which can really showcase a law firm’s understanding of complex or specialist areas of the law. Positioning them as leaders in their field. Significantly, this kind of copy is eminently sharable, more so than print versions, and if written with SEO in mind, will be more easily searchable too. Important if you want to be visible to potential clients.
What may concern some lawyers is the 24-hour news cycle and the immediacy of online and social media as it can restrict the ability to plan and refine before acting. This brings increased propensity for error and a likely hood that often complex legislation may get lost in translation. But this is exactly why enlisting a firm with specialist legal PR expertise is more advisable, because not only will they know how to best exploit the potential of digital media when an issue or a trend is brewing, but they will also have a better grasp of the legal issues at hand, reducing the risk of costly errors occurring.
What does a legal PR strategy look like?
No legal PR plan would be complete without a strategy for how to best maximise digital outreach. The opportunities for positive engagement across new media platforms are too many to simply ignore. Potential channels for consideration should include:
- Website and blogs, written with SEO in mind. These can offer quick wins as they are easy to update as and when the wider news agenda dictates. When SEO principles are employed, a firm’s owned content will be far more searchable and will give it much more authority against others discussing the same topic;
- LinkedIn – the networking and engagement platform specifically for professionals. LinkedIn allows its users to create and share engaging content, enhance their credibility, and connect with both their peers and potential clients. Through the dissemination of professional blogs, rich media such as videos and podcasts, data-driven analytics, and thought leadership articles, LinkedIn can help create an online persona for legal professionals that will enable them to lead the conversation and help them stand out from the crowd.
- YouTube facilitates the hosting and sharing of video or animation content online. This works particularly well when there is a complex legal matter that requires decoding for mass consumption. The process also humanises lawyers to potential clients which may well offer them a valuable point of difference.
- Digital PR for legal firms. This will process will see a legal PR professional translate statistical data into engaging headlines with a legal angle that will have broad appeal specifically for online news platforms. The importance here is not just to gain notoriety for a specific partner at a law firm, although that is a benefit, but also to create back-links to the firm’s website. This will increase the website’s authority in Google rankings and make it more visible in online searches.
How do you know if legal PR has been effective?
When a firm has chosen to invest in legal PR services, how do they know whether they are getting value for money?
Historically, the PR industry utilised AVE (advertising value equivalent) whereby a value was attributed to a published article by multiplying the advertising rate of a specific publication by the size of the printed article. Some agencies will have then doubled or even trebled this value based on the assumption that PR was more ‘impactful’ than adverting.
Thankfully, this method has not survived, primarily due to the rise of online media, but also because it didn’t reflect an article’s true worth. For example, were the right key messages seen by the right audiences?
The argument regarding how results in legal PR can be meaningfully measured still rumbles on, after all, success will look different for everyone, but what tends to be the norm these days is defining key performance indicators (such as site backlinks gained) for each client. These clearly set out what the objectives are for each campaign so that success can be benchmarked.
Firms should agree editorial targets with their legal PR team at the outset. These can reflect, for example, the type and volume of media coverage required to ‘put the firm or a certain lawyer on the map for a specific type of work’. The targets or KPIs should be defined by whatever the strategic objective was that drove the decision to spend on legal PR. The legal PR agency then takes on the responsibility of delivering on those KPIs and reporting the results.
But of course, success can look remarkably different. Aside from specific KPIs, most legal PR agencies will have the broader brief of helping to raise awareness or generate new leads. But this is not often information that is made readily available to them. Asked where a new lead has come from, many will simply say ‘networking’ or ‘word of mouth’. The fact that a legal PR campaign could have played a major role in decision-making may never be fully known.
What PR professionals can be sure of, however, is that their ability to develop close relationships with the spokespeople within a firm will result in a more nuanced approach to legal PR. It will also spread goodwill and a sense of trust between both parties which will pay dividends when it comes to rolling out a campaign.
With a considered legal PR content strategy implemented, law firms can be confident of attracting the right audience. At WorkPR, we have 25+ years of experience creating content specifically for the legal sector, so are well placed to advise on a legal PR strategy to achieve your goals.
Why not contact us for a free consultation, so that we can showcase just how targeted legal PR can help redefine your firm in a crowded market.
