Crisis Communications: The Definitive Guide to Managing the Message

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Shakespeare Was Right: “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”^*

In a crisis, lawyers generally fall into one of two camps: those that are helpful and those that are obstructionists. Those in the latter category usually don’t favor talking to the media; “no comment” is the mantra they have tattooed on their foreheads, and woe to any client who doesn’t cleave closely to their holy pronouncements about not communicating in a crisis.

Many lawyers treat the law as stark, draconian, and largely black and white, and those who have been trained that way respond accordingly in a crisis. Crises, on the other hand, exist in the vast complexity of the gray, with much more texture and nuance. Effective crisis communications uses that gray ...