How to Align Your Legal and Communications Teams When a PR Crisis Hits Your Business

In the world of public opinion, information (and, it should be noted, not always accurate information) moves fast. Like, lightning fast. But the world of law? Not so much. When your company takes a reputation-threatening hit, your communications team might indeed be able to react swiftly and strategically to grab hold of the narrative.

But the lawyers in your corner are playing on a whole different ball team — one that is situated in a courtroom instead of a newsroom, one that moves at a markedly slower pace and one that’s geared toward the long term over short-term outcomes.

And yet you’ll need both perspectives to get you out of a jam: the agile skills of a communications specialist and the litigation tactics of a savvy lawyer. In a time of crisis, therefore, it’s essential to have both sides aligned, not in spite of their differing focus points and time frames, but because of them.

Related: What Are the Best PR Tactics to Handle a Crisis?

What you need comms for

Think of your image handlers — whether that’s an internal PR staff, an external PR firm, or yourself sitting at your desk — as being on the offense for you. The communications you make public about your company, especially when they’re crisis communications, aim to get ahead of the problem and gain control of the story being told about you by ensuring that you’re the storyteller. Not some stranger on Insta or TikTok.

Comms is focused on protecting your image, managing your reputation and sustaining or rebuilding credibility and trust when they’re at risk. All of these objectives are obviously of the utmost priority when your business is facing a significant challenge. To handle it properly and adeptly, you want nimble actions, sharp thinking and informed communication practices.

What you need legal for

Your legal team, on the other hand, plays defense for you. Heck, any lawyer’s prime objective is defending their client. In the case of defending your business reputation, this translates to having a legal ally in your corner who recognizes the value of PR crisis management and who understands the necessary steps that must be taken as the process unfolds over the long haul.

For example, you may be tempted to post “your side of the story” on your social platforms, paint yourself in the best possible light when people are questioning your integrity. But a sharp legal team knows that restraint is critical at this time and will analyze every single word of your posts to ensure that you’re not exposing vulnerabilities that can be used against you in court.

The primary distinction between your two teams, then, comes down to the specific audience they’re catering to. Your comms specialists are appealing to those who want to support you, aiming to build you up. Your legal team is on the lookout for any possible detractors, those who may have a vested interest in impeaching your character or credibility.

Bridging the gap between them

To effectively align both your offense and your defense, it’s vital that each team understands what the other is trying to accomplish. This is made more problematic because, as I said, they’re each working to target different audiences, with different objectives in mind, and on different timelines.

As the bridge between them — the glue that’s holding them together with the ultimate shared goal of protecting your company — there are steps you can take to have them meet in the middle for double the impact. These steps are intended to alleviate the friction in the midst of a live crisis, mitigate obstacles in your crisis management campaign and nurture a healthy partnership between comms and legal.

1. Enact a timely approvals process. Once your comms team crafts the messaging it recommends, the first stop on the communications train is the desk of your legal advisor. Make sure legal reviews anything and everything you’re planning to transmit in response to the crisis. Set a deadline for when legal will either approve or amend the text to keep things moving swiftly. It’s totally worth it to devote time to this step at the outset so that both teams are aligned on any and all new language that is being prepared for public consumption.
2. Build a repository of basic messaging and approved language. Various statements will likely be needed as the crisis situation progresses through multiple stages, so having a store of appropriate language to address these stages ahead of time will put you in the driver’s seat of your crisis trajectory. I’d advise having an approved holding statement at the ready, followed by agreed-upon baseline messaging and even a bank of FAQs. Take advantage of your new approvals process to ensure prompt response times, but only in ways that both satisfy your comms team and appease your legal team.
3. Grant the benefit of the doubt. To avoid the common pitfall of comms and legal feeling pitted against each other, it’s vital to assume positive intent on both sides. During a PR crisis, emotions can get the better of anyone, and this can create unnecessary tension and unintentional misunderstandings. So keep in mind that different priorities don’t mean different positions. Everyone should be working together to resolve what will hopefully be a temporary situation, and to facilitate this cooperation, members on both sides need to be reframed, not as opponents, but as teammates. Each side has subject matter expertise the other needs to maximize efficiency, and giving them the benefit of the doubt of best intentions will go a long way toward improving crisis management efficacy.

Related: A Reputation Crisis Just Hit. Here’s What Smart Leaders Do in the First 24 Hours

Skillful crisis management requires both

When you encounter a PR crisis, equally value your PR communications team and your PR legal team. One working without the other is only going to lead to additional problems you don’t need right now and stymie your progress in navigating the crisis.

That said, PR crisis management is more of an art than a science, needing practice to get things in place and get things on track. With a rise in legal disputes being predicted for the immediate future, it’s more important than ever to prepare for the worst as you work toward the best possible outcome.

And the way there is to establish consistency between your cross-functional teams. Because consistency is what creates success, and internal alignment is what creates consistency.