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Law firms: call in the litigation PR experts early
By Ronel Lehmann, chief executive, Lehmann Communications
The Heather Mills and Paul McCartney divorce saga is a journalist’s dream, which of course means that the potential for a PR disaster looms large. But while the risks to the reputations, and media profiles, of the two protagonists are obvious, the concerns for Heather’s law firm Mishcon de Reya are intrinsically linked and just as worrisome.
The fact that it made headlines in the Daily Mail when the law firm hired its own PR firm to try and stop a series of leaks that had threatened to derail the multimillion pound divorce claim shows just how important the media now is in litigation. Ms Mills had already hired her own PR advisers, but they were unceremoniously dropped in favour of a team that Mishcon has used in the past, with partner Anthony Julius apparently deciding that the coverage threatened not just the case, but also the reputation of his firm in a market where discretion is paramount.