Law Firm PR in CEE: Insight from the Experts

“The old adage of the more things change, the more they remain the same still holds some truth,” said law firm consultant Paramjit Mahli in a 2008 article for Law Practice Today. “Public perceptions still have a strong hold in society. Visibility and credibility still go a long way in cementing business relationships and deals. The credibility associated with getting cited in press or seen as an expert is very hard to buy in advertising dollars.” Mahli’s analysis remains on point today, despite the many changes to the media landscape in the intervening 7 years.

In fact, law firm Public Relations representatives are critical (though often silent and hidden) ambassadors for law firms, providing a bridge between the lawyers they work for and the publications that report on those lawyers’ achievements.

Accordingly, we reached out to several highly experienced PR representatives in CEE to learn more about PR practices for law firms in the region, and to understand better the challenges they face and strategies they employ to succeed in this critical role. 

The Initial Hurdles

Based on input from various PR professionals in the industry – both in-house (i.e., within a law firm) and as external consultants – it appears that, even before particular strategies can be created and employed, PR representatives must clear two fundamental hurdles, which can be called: (1) Firm Commitment, and (2) Bar Limitations. Both relate to the relative immaturity of many CEE markets.

The issue of Firm Commitment relates to the need for firms to understand and support PR efforts in the first place. Because law firms are inevitably and necessarily structured around the wishes and demands of the partners – who generally both own and manage their firms – successful PR requires partners enlightened to the value of PR and committed to the concept. One Marketing Manager, whose partners demanded she remain anonymous, noted that “the priority for business development and marketing must come from a senior level within a law firm.” She reports that “this commitment to business development and marketing has not always been the case.”

Jan Posvar, the Business Development Manager for Schoenherr in Prague, says essentially the same thing: “PR with law firms is very often driven by an ‘illuminated’ partner who is aware of the power of PR.”

The challenge, often, is that not all Partners in CEE have yet reached the level of marketing savvy that their counterparts in the UK and US have. Posvar says: “I guess the only difference is the size and maturity of the markets. Anglo-Saxon countries are in respect to the legal market more mature, knowing more different tools and having a more positive approach toward public relations (just because they know communication tools better).” Thus, he notes, “CEE countries are still learning about PR and what it means in a very fast changing global environment.” 

Mate Bende, now an external consultant as Founder of Pro/Lawyer Consulting, echoes Posvar’s assessment. “The legal market is 5-8 years behind the UK or US markets in terms of law firm management, which includes PR and communications,” Bende says. “The good practices and the business-like approach in a wider scale started here 5-6 years ago (following softened bar regulations). The way of doing legal business is clear; CEE just has to catch up a bit.” 

Bende’s reference to bar regulations leads directly into the second institutional hurdle facing law firm PR representatives in CEE: the conservative nature of many Bar associations in the region. Bende notes that “in some countries it is still forbidden for law firms to advertise or communicate their deals, prices, or clients in any way,” which he refers to as “a very archaic approach.” 

One law firm representative (who prefers to remain anonymous) explains that in many CEE jurisdictions the legal profession is “granted” by the Constitution, and the industry is seen “as a vehicle of or a mechanism within the system, used for proper functioning and operations.” As a result, he explains, “profit, fame, self-promotion should come second to that value,” adding jokingly: “We’re all traditional and important like that!”

Beyond the Hurdles – the Day-to-Day Realities

Of course, even in the absence of problematic bar regulations and with at least nominal firm commitment to marketing, law firm PR representatives face many additional challenges.

The Lights Are On, But Nobody’s Home

The most common mistake many firms in the region make, according to Bende, is for the Partners to attempt to handle PR themselves, and “not having a PR responsible [representative] at all.” And a warm body is not enough. Bende adds that, sometimes, even if a firm has a marketing or PR manager (or an outside consultant), “a lot of times they work on an ad-hoc basis without mid-/long-term communications strategy. That is a good step if they know that they have to communicate, but they still have to figure out the reason.”

Jack-of-All-Trades, Master of None

“As a result of the size of law firm offices in CEE, the responsibility for PR or media relations, general marketing, and business development often rests with one and the same person. Many of us are therefore a ‘jack-of-all-trades’,” explains Erik Werkman, Head of Business Development and Marketing, Prague, at CMS. He adds: “The skill sets required for these slightly different tasks are quite similar, so it makes more than just economic sense to combine these roles into one po-sition.” 

This is not necessarily a good thing. Posvar, who agrees that “most law firms do not see the basic difference between marketing / PR / business development,” says that many partners “mix up these disciplines, strategies, and tools,” and says that the inevitable result of such confusion is the development of “expectations [that] are just not realistic.” (He claims that, “most lawyers expect that one single [marketing/PR/BD] action … will ideally lead to a new open case”).

Another common mistake is simply not to understand fully what good PR can mean. Posvar explains, “PR is perceived just as media relations. All other PR instruments are often totally forgotten, mostly in the line of partner/personal profiling and branding.” 

This is perhaps inevitable, according to Werkman: “PR often has a very direct – and often flattering – result. A partner gives a quote one day and the next morning it appears in the newspaper alongside a nice picture. Other marketing or BD activities might require much more time to come to a tangible result.”

Forgetting Your Ace in the Hole

To a significant extent, of course, lawyers are themselves the best source of good PR. Still, not all lawyers in the region recognize the need. The aforementioned anonymous Marketing Manager believes that in CEE, “there is often insufficient understanding of the importance of [good PR] by lawyers and it is seen as not something that is required of them.” In fact, she says, lawyers are key to a firm’s PR success, as “they maintain regular contact with existing clients and have the potential to gain new clients on a frequent basis. A firm’s lawyers are its ambassadors.” 

Maybe so, Werkman says, but he points out that lawyers have other and more pressing concerns than BD and public relations. “PR is an important part of the marketing mix, but the time that a lawyer has to spend on non-fee-earning work is limited,” he says. “Law firms have to make sure that they do not give in to the temptation of the quick win and spend too much time and effort (both from fee earners and marketing support staff) on PR, in favor of activities that could develop actual fee income.”

Don’t Say It, Show It

“No, the fifteenth edition of your blackletter law book is really not that interesting and perhaps not as ‘sophisticated’ as you describe it in your press release,” is a message Georg Baldauf, Founder of GreenbergAdvisory, tries to instil in law firm PR representatives. While Baldauf’s point is to not exaggerate the importance of firm-produced material when talking to the press, his warning also hints at the value of producing – and promoting – genuinely interesting information. 

Baldauf believes that major international law firms, at least, are starting to get the message. “Global law firms are putting a lot of money into market research and studies (e.g., about economic development and regulation) which they can publish with aligned PR around the globe.” He describes the end result of these investments as “real news” and “of a certain value, especially when you cooperate with a trusted media brand.”

Beata Niemczuk, Marketing & Business Development Director at Dentons – Warsaw, explains that “nowadays a common trend is that corporate communications is built by using content marketing and thought leadership.” However, she warns, “not all market players know yet how to apply those methods, and they continue with the old ways of communications, telling clients and a wider public what they wish to say (often boring and irrelevant news) rather than what clients really need to know business-wise.” 

And Niemczuk makes the same point Werkman did earlier about the conflicting demands for lawyers’ time: “To create valuable content a PR agency or a marketer is not enough; you need the proactive involvement of a professional (a fee earner) and that becomes a challenge, knowing how busy lawyers can be.”

Getting in The Press: Facilitate the News Cycle, Don’t Try to Break It

Baldauf suggests PR representatives who believe their news is uniquely important may be mistaken. “Don’t think you can break the news cycle,” he says. “Neither with your issues nor with your timing. As you’re not a government or a stock-listed company, you will not succeed.” Journalists and editors have their own rules about how to value information, Baldauf says, which they divide roughly between importance and emotional appeal. As a result, he suggests, “keep this external view in mind and try to follow their issues, [adding] your law firm knowledge as a plus.”

In addition to this general rule, Baldauf suggests several specific best practices as to how messages can be conveyed to the press for firms with a story to tell: 

The first is to always “make sure you describe – in your very first sentence – why this is important for their readers.” He says that PR representatives should “discuss and explain the story first during a morning coffee with journalists,” as “[journalists] have usually not attended law school, so for them it‘s often not that easy to understand the connection.” 

Second, “what journalists want in general is clear: They want the truth and they want it now.” As a result, Bauldauf suggests always getting the message to journalists earlier rather than later: “Tomorrow is not an option. Especially when you are into daily news. The Rule of Thumb: Put your message out in the morning. Punchtime is during breakfast.”

Third, Bauldauf says that firms should take care not to distract from the message with unnecessary information or details. In Baldauf’s view, it is critical to discuss the “what, how, and when to disclose sensitive matters” in advance, and once done, a firm’s “internal structure should also not be reflected to the outside world. An international magazine does not want 16 different telephone numbers. One, working, is far enough.”

Finally, Bauldauf encourages firms’ PR representatives to position themselves as “a trusted partner for the journalists. Someone they can call, someone who is available and delivers.”

Conclusion

The PR representatives of law firms in CEE – both in-house and external consultants – have a challenging, important mission: To communicate their employers’ capabilities and successes to the market and to effectively brand their firms as credible, skilled, reliable, and efficient. As the legal markets in the region become ever more competitive, mature, and challenging, their work is more critical than ever. 

This Article was originally published in Issue 2.4. of the CEE Legal Matters Magazine. If you would like to receive a hard copy of the magazine, you can subscribe here.