Your Firm’s Role in Improving Diversity and Inclusion in Media Commentary^Featured

Diversity and inclusion is a timely topic in the legal industry and in the media. In an often-cited 2016 article in the Atlantic, Adrienne LaFrance performed a scientific analysis of the list of the people she had quoted in her articles in the course of a year. She found, to her consternation, that like many other journalists, she had predominantly quoted men – in her case, about 75 percent of the time. She reflected, I’m not excluding women on purpose, but I can’t say it’s an accident, either. Reporters choose whom to interview. We carefully parcel out our time as we work toward deadlines. I spent several weeks working on this story about self-driving cars, for instance, and it occurred to me as I was reporting that I hadn’t interviewed any women. LaFrance had done the same type of analysis of her work in 2013, and it turned out that three years later, she hadn’t…

November 15, 2019 * by CherylBame * Leave a comment

Business Development, Public Relations

PR Can Position You to Make the Close^Featured

BD and PR departments need to work together to enhance the brand and improve client engagement.

April 17, 2019 * by CherylBame * Leave a comment

Awards/Rankings, Writing Advice

Essential Guide to Successful Editorial Nominations^Featured

When I started working for law firms in 2001, I never imagined that my typical day would be focused on anything other than media relations. But times have changed and so have the publications. Today, much of our work week can be devoted to responding to awards and rankings — thanks to the increasing number of requests from news editorial (legitimate lists) and pay-for-play lists and what I will call pop-up publications (not legitimate) that send out requests for submissions. We can all agree developing an editorial nomination takes time, skill and some finesse, from navigating the politics of which submissions to make to compiling the details and facts of each matter that tell a compelling story. This was highlighted throughout the Legal Marketing Association’s recent Los Angeles panel program that featured Greg Mitchell, editor-in-chief of The Recorder; Julie Fei, global communications manager at O’Melveny & Myers; and Kristy Werness,…

March 17, 2016 * by CherylBame

Media Relations

Facts are boring. Stories are Compelling.^Featured

The human mind is constructed for telling and listening to stories. It’s just how our brains work. We are hard-wired in that way. Mark McKinnon, a leading political strategist recently told the New York Times you can’t win an election without storytelling. “Good stories win. Campaigns without a story lose.” Noted trial lawyer Gerry Spence told a group of lawyers they will only capture a jury’s attention if they present their case as a story. “Of course it is all story telling — nothing more. It is the experience of the tribe around the fire, the primordial genes excited, listening — the old warrior, his voice alive, rising with the flames, now whispering away, hinting at the secret …” The same principle is true for public relations professionals. A PR professional succeeds when he or she develops a convincing story, with a clear beginning, middle and end. Yes, reporters like data and survey results, but…

February 22, 2016 * by CherylBame

What Your Linkedin Headline Says (and Doesn’t Say) About You?

It’s safe to assume (or is it?) that most lawyersl have a LinkedIn profile. The preeminent business-oriented social network, Linkedin just for jobseekers and accepting invitations to connect. It’s an indispensable communications tool for business development. LinkedIn has more than 600 million members, half of whom are active on the site. Forty percent of those who are active visit the site daily. Ninety-two percent of Fortune 500 companies (clients and prospective clients) use LinkedIn. LinkedIn is responsible for 80 percent of the leads from social media that represent business generation. Assuming that you are on LinkedIn, how do you maximize your visibility and your ability to stand out among the crowd? That is a topic that will require more than one blog post, to be sure. But one way to start this undertaking is to look at something you probably have ignored since you set up your profile– your LinkedIn…

November 12, 2019 * by CherylBame * Leave a comment

Media Relations, Public Relations

The Real Reason Partners Leave Law Firms

This interesting article written by Roy Strom for Bloomberg Big Law Business this month points to some provocative suggestions from law firm leaders as to why partners or groups of attorneys leave large firms, often at their firm’s request, and move laterally to other firms. A key question is what the firms should tell the press, which is interested in the reasons behind any departure in what Strom calls Big Law’s Free Agent Era. Strom says that a common response from law firm managing partners these days to requests for comment is that lawyers move on because they’ve been told that they’re no longer part of their firm’s strategic plan. He says that’s a fairly new idea in the law firm world that firms develop strategic plans and execute on them to the extent that they let groups of partners go if they don’t fit the plan. I don’t necessarily disagree with this type of…

October 10, 2019 * by CherylBame * Leave a comment

Crisis Public Relations

Can Your Law Firm’s Reputation Afford to Take a Hit?

In recent months, we have been witnesses to truly remarkable situations that have generated intense media and public scrutiny. Is your law firm or company prepare to handle a crisis?

April 22, 2019 * by CherylBame * Leave a comment