Good Crisis PR can turn a lump of coal into a gift.
The holiday season is a busy time. Santa isn’t the only one who brings packages on Christmas Eve. So do judges.
Recognizing and seizing every opportunity when it happens gets you the best results. The media wants their story now, not when you get around to it.
Let us tell you a tale of how a smart Crisis PR team turned a lump of coal into a gift.
On Christmas Eve, a judge handed down a ruling in a complex corporate dispute. He threw out five of our arguments but retained one. In spinning the release, we focused solely on the argument we won. We wrapped it up and sold it to the media on Christmas Day.
The other side was unreachable. All of the news coverage reflected our side of the story. On Monday, when the other side returned to work, they asked the LA Times to run another story with their side. The editor laughed at them and said, “Where were you when we wanted you?”
When the other side has checked out for the holidays, we keep working because your reputation doesn’t get a day off.
Lots of people spend the holidays with their families. We do, too. Since we’re a father-daughter team, we spend the holidays working together in our matching slippers1, strategizing, and placing favorable stories while the other side is MIA.
The beauty is that it doesn’t require our client or lawyer to work over the holiday. We’re like a crock pot. Let the machine do all the work while you sit back knowing you’re being taken care of.
For a deeper glimpse into our world, see our book on Amazon, A Lawyer’s Guide to Crisis PR: Protecting Your Clients In & From the Media.
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You can reach Roger Gillott and Eden Gillott directly at 310-396-8696.
Gillott Communications is a Los Angeles-based public relations firm that specializes in high-stakes Crisis & Reputation Management with more than 50 years of expertise in strategic communications, corporate public relations, and working with the media.
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I remember well a corollary to your post. Twenty-five years ago, a friend of mine, a partner at a prestigious NYC firm, told me about a mistake his firm had made. As Christmas approached, litigation was occurring in Wisconsin in which his firm represented one side, and the other side was represented by local Wisconsin lawyers.
The NYC firm had a number of younger partners who considered Christmas just another day, and they wanted to rattle their adversary’s chains. They made a discovery request that would have opposing counsel working on Christmas Eve and day. Not only did the Judge deny the request’s due date, but, at least according to my older and wiser friend at that firm, the Judge went out of his way to be unhelpful to plaintiff’s counsel for the rest of that trial.
Eden, I also believe it can be quite helpful to clients when we work over the holidays, but asking anyone not on your team to do so can produce bad results. My most recent blog is about the work choices we make at this time of year, http://www.victorls.com/blog.
I remember well a corollary to your post. Twenty-five years ago, a friend of mine, a partner at a prestigious NYC firm, told me about a mistake his firm had made. As Christmas approached, litigation was occurring in Wisconsin in which his firm represented one side, and the other side was represented by local Wisconsin lawyers.
The NYC firm had a number of younger partners who considered Christmas just another day, and they wanted to rattle their adversary’s chains. They made a discovery request that would have opposing counsel working on Christmas Eve and day. Not only did the Judge deny the request’s due date, but, at least according to my older and wiser friend at that firm, the Judge went out of his way to be unhelpful to plaintiff’s counsel for the rest of that trial.
Eden, I also believe it can be quite helpful to clients when we work over the holidays, but asking anyone not on your team to do so can produce bad results. My most recent blog is about the work choices we make at this time of year, http://www.victorls.com/blog.