Public Relations For Law Firms – Be Proactive Not Reactive

05/02/10

By Giselle Daverat, Byfield Consultancy

What exactly is Public Relations? The Oxford English Dictionary describes it as: the business of creating a good public image for an organisation or famous person. I believe this to be true - public relations is about building one's reputation, however it is also about protecting one's reputation through a variety of ways including, primarily today, the media.

Public relations (PR) is an increasingly vital function in the marketing and business development strategy of law firms. Good PR is a major factor in building trust and understanding between a firm and its various...

...publics - whether they be existing or potential new clients, barrister sets and other law firms, employees, the local/ national community - or all of those stakeholder groups. An effective PR strategy is based on how a firm can best promote itself to the wider public via the print, internet and broadcast media. In this day and age media relations is arguably the most important part of overall PR, and does the most to promote and build a firm's or individual's profile and reputation - it is a powerful way of reaching one's public and influencing its choices and way of thinking.

The legal profession is on the brink of massive change with the introduction of the Legal Services Act (LSA) 2007, commonly known as Tesco Law. The LSA seeks to liberalise and regulate the market for legal services in England and Wales, to encourage more competition and to provide a new route for consumer complaints. The legal profession is not usually seen as a leader of revolution, rather a bastion of tradition, but the aforementioned changes promise to transform the way both lawyers and barristers interact with the public.

The LSA promises to revolutionise the way... continued on page two >

 

 

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