Business: PR for Law Firms / Interview with 
Jamie Moss (newsPROs)
Getting Exposure in the Media
||| Oliver Weiss

Public relations for law firms is a field of business virtually unheard of in Germany. Lawyers tend to do PR themselves (not a very good idea), or they have their sectretaries cover the firm's PR (not a very good idea either). The approach could not be more different in the US where PR is considered a part of the deal together with the legal work itself. Oliver Weiss met with Jamie Moss in New York, external PR manager for several major US law firms, to talk about the legal whiz biz.

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"I think what defines my practice is not so much who I represent but the fact that  whomever I represent has an  issue, not a product."  – Jamie Moss, founder of newsPROs   First published in LEGAmedia, my online magazine for lawyers and entrepreneurs (January 2002). >DEUTSCHE VERSION: Wie bekommt man die gewünschte Publicity? >WEBDESIGN: Mehr zu Kanzlei-Websites in meinem Beitrag "In der Welt zuhause".

o what do you do exactly? Tell me about your work.
     Jamie Moss: My primary mission for my clients is to obtain media exposure for them. That includes everything from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal to CNN and CNBC. It includes TV and radio, daily newspapers, wire services, and the weekly news magazines such as Forbes, Fortune, and even local and regional media.

When you represent a law firm you can either work with them by obtaining media exposure for their practice groups, such as bankruptcy, healthcare, and technology law. Or you can work with them on a specific case that the firm is involved in. The bottom line is, it all relates to media coverage. A firm comes to me to get exposure in the media.

But you’re not only doing law firms, right?
     I have what I call a boutique public relations firm, and I certainly specialize in law firms. I’m a lawyer, and therefore I understand the legal issues. Lawyers are comfortable working with me, partly because I understand their language, cases, and the judicial and legislative process.

I think the fact that I am a lawyer has certainly helped in my successful – lawyers have a comfort level that I’m not going to get them in trouble or jeopardize their cases. I think they also see that I have a great respect for the law, and that my role is to help them, not just get media exposure at the expense of a client relationship or a case. That kind of public relations is not good public relations.

I do represent small businesses from time to time, I do have a pretty significant record of representing non-profit groups. I think what defines my practice is not so much who I represent but the fact that whomever I represent has an issue, not a product.

My background is that of a news person, so I approach everything that I do from the point of view of the reporter, which is another reason why I have very good relationships with reporters, because I appreciate their stresses, I appreciate their deadlines, and I appreciate what is going on in their world.

From law to news to law

With a legal background, what made you a news person?
     I graduated from law school, and went directly into the news media. I was a local television news person on the air, and worked in several different television markets around the country. Then I left on-the-air reporting, and went to NBC Network News in New York where I worked for five years as an assignment editor and producer.

So my background is law and journalism. I have never worked in a public relations firm. At NBC News I worked on the assignment desk, so I know what it takes to get the news covered. I know what it takes to get the story done, and I know what kind of information reporters need.

Let’s talk about newsPRos. Is that your company?
     It was started by me fifteen years ago, and we’re primarily doing work for the legal profession. It has expanded over the years through word of mouth. Most of the issues that I deal with are legal but, some are social issues. All the issues all belong to the mix of what is news.

Why would a law firm be approaching you, an external service provider, rather than keeping a manager in-house? What do you do that others can’t?
     Well, there are two ways to do it. I don’t know if one is better than the other. First of all, it would have to be a pretty large law firm, a law firm that was under the top fifty would not be able to sustain a full-time PR person – there just wouldn’t be enough work, unless that person also did marketing and PR.

And the problem with that is that marketing and PR are very different. Generally speaking, a marketing person knows little about PR, and the PR person knows little of marketing. Good marketing is supported by good PR. Unfortunately, in many law firms there are marketing people doing the PR. I think for a law firm that’s a big mistake. 

Many of the top thirty firms do have in-house marketing staff, in addition to an in-house PR person. I think that it just comes down to the management style of either the marketing partner, or the administrative partner or the marketing person, whether they want to have it in-house, or they want to use consultants. Budget may play a role in the decision as well.

Marketing v. PR

What is PR as opposed to marketing, or vice versa?
     Marketing deals with a lot of activities that have nothing to do with the media. For instance, seminars which provide exposure for lawyers in their field of expertise, and provide a direct marketing effort to the business community. This is where business people from your community and from your area will come to hear lawyers speak.

"Being quoted in a newspaper has a certain aura. Rightly or wrongly, there is a perception that the person being quoted must know what he/she is talking about."

It includes the placement of written articles in business trade and legal publications, organizingwritten presentations for perspective clients, and making presentations with your lawyers to companies that are interested in obtaining your firm’s services. It’s drafting and overseeing the process of putting together the firm’s written marketing material, brochures, the letterhead, and all those activities that have nothing to do with the media.

Now I’m not going to tell you that there aren’t public relation firms or strategic communications firms like mine who don’t handle some of those functions. I will arrange speaking seminars for my clients, if that’s one of the services they need. I don’t generally produce marketing materials, but I’m more than happy to review the writing – I have two writers on my staff.

Being quoted in a newspaper has a certain aura. Rightly or wrongly, there is a perception that the person being quoted must know what he/she is talking about, otherwise the reporter would not have called him/her. Whether that is reality or not, this is the perception, and that’s how it works. So if you’re quoted on a repeated basis in major publications, a potential client looking for a law firm may very well call you because you have demonstrated that you are knowledgeable in that area of the law.

The learning curve

What kind of a relationship do you think you have to have with the law firm?
     Being an external service provider, the public assumption would be that you don’t really know what’s going on in the firm. Well, there is a learning curve. You have to learn what’s going on in the firm, and the bigger the firm, the bigger the curve. The big thing is communication with your clients, it has to be regular and constant and include a variety of people. They keep you in the information loop.

In the case of a very large law firm that I have represented now for a little more than a year – they have 14 offices, twelve in the US, two in the UK, they have a marketing staff of about eight or nine people – I interface directly with everybody in the law firm, from the managing partner to the associates, to the partners, and the marketing people.

I spend a good deal of time visiting the offices, meeting with lawyers, with the practice group heads, meeting with the people that the marketing staff or the head of the practice groups feel have media worthy cases or work and are the most media-friendly. I participate in many conference calls as well as one on one conversation with lawyers, I also rely on e-mail enormously.

Not everybody is good at talking with the media. Either because they’re not comfortable in doing it, or because the kind of work they do is not particularly in line with what the media would be interested in. So basically, you get to know as many people as possible in the law firm. I’m in e-mail and phone communication with lawyers daily. It’s rare that I wouldn’t be speaking to thirty or forty lawyers a week.

That’s how I do it. I ask them to send me story ideas, and ask them what’s coming up, what litigations they’re involved in, what issues and trends they see developing in their field. I read the newspapers, so I know that privacy is a big issue, and I know we have attorneys that deal with privacy relative to banking and healthcare. So I know what’s happening in the news, and I can contact the lawyers and try to establish them as good sources for the reporters.

"You need to explain to a reporter why members of your firm have the specific knowledge that you represent yourself as having."

So you’re approaching lawyers rather than marketing persons or web site people?
     Right, I talk to the lawyers directly. They call me, I call them, they all know I’m around, they all know what my mission is.

Technically speaking

On a technical level, how do you keep track with what’s already out and what’s not? Do you employ databases, spreadsheets, or any kind of document management software?
     For my database I use Filemaker Pro. I have a reporter database. Every time I speak with a reporter, his/her name goes into the database. It can be sorted by geography, or publication, the client on whose behalf I spoke to that reporter, the subject that that reporter generally reports on, etc., and so I have ended up with a database of thousands of reporters. Now remember, reporters change locations just like you change your clothes. So you do have to keep up with that. I subscribed to some tools of the trade where I’m continually updated on the movements of reporters. I update my database continually.

I track what stories I have pitched to reporters in another document. That information is sorted by client and topic. Believe it or not, somehow, even though it is on paper, it just stays in my head.  I think that is part of the skill of doing what I do.

Public relations is not very strong in law firms in Germany. Any advice on how to go about it?
     I think if I were to work for a law firm that had really no knowledge of public relations, I would suggest a few things.

First, they need to get together some very simple but organized written materials which explain what the law firm does. If there are ten different practice groups in your law firm, do a few paragraphs on each one.

Second, you then need to explain to a reporter why members of your firm have the specific knowledge that you represent yourself as having, tell them what makes you a credible person to talk to.

What makes you a credible source to a reporter is the fact that you have actually been practicing the craft on which you’re about to speak. Tell what cases you have handled, what deals you have been involved in. Of course you can’t mention specific client names without their approval.

Having done that, I would then probably identify some publications that reach your audience, meaning current and prospective clients. Who do you want to market to? Who do you want to have see your firm’s name? Who do you want for your next ten clients?

I would target these publications, I would review them for their content, I would identify some reporters who write on the same subject over and over again where there’s a match for the expertise you have in your law firm. And I would call them and I would say, look, we’d love to get together with you for coffee, this is what we can provide to you. I think you would find us a valuable resource.

Reporters need background, and they need sources. They welcome it. You can’t be too pushy, you have to know where to stop. I would say you need to identify publications, identify reporters, establish a good working relationship, and then think of some good stories, and just call them and say: “here’s an idea that no-one’s written about yet.” Reporters don’t want you to give the same story idea to other reporters. You make friends in the media by providing them with exclusive stories. That’s the way to start. [2001]