HBJ Gateley Wareing was front page news last month when the stolen Da Vinci masterpiece Madonna of the Yarnwinder was discovered in its Glasgow office. Since the news broke the law firm has taken a vow of silence on the matter. Steven Raeburn talks to crisis PR expert Richard Bright to find out what any law firm should do when it meets disaster.

If you had tried to contact HBJ Gately Wareing on 5th October, you might have found their phone lines were busier than usual. The Glasgow offices of the firm had been raided by police in connection with an ongoing inquiry into the theft of artworks by Leonardo Da Vinci, and with no warning, and through no fault of their own, they suddenly found themselves occupying the front pages of almost all Scottish, some UK, and a fair chunk of the world’s press.
HBJ Gately Wareing did not choose to be front page news, but all too often, law firms have found themselves subject to negative press due to an unexpected crisis, or by the conduct –in or out of the office- of their employees, which have brought unwelcome publicity. The Firm offered HBJ Gately Wareing space to tell us about the events of the last two weeks, but they declined. Their website is also silent about the publicity hiccup, and they appear to have chosen the semi-monarchical approach of making strictly no comment. However, as many of the larger sized firms now employ specialist PR firms to handle all media relations, we took the advice of specialist Richard Bright, Director of Weber Shandwick, and asked him to elucidate how a law firm might consider addressing an unforeseen media storm, should one ever hit.
“The critical thing is to have a good internal protocol in place, so that if something does happen, everyone knows how to react accordingly, who to inform, and how to manage external comment with the media,” he says. “The old cliché that it will be tomorrow’s fish and chip paper doesn’t exist now. Something you thought may disappear can quickly escalate and go global in a matter of minutes. You need to have a precise internal structure in place. If it is just the managing director who gives that comment, everyone needs to know that.”
Bright says that anticipating a PR problem and planning how to respond to it is crucial. If you are prepared and ready to roll out your emergency plan, you will have a better chance of managing any potentially adverse publicity.
“The most mistakes are made right from the start if someone gets caught completely off guard, and that will dictate how everything else goes. So, right from the start, you should have a structured environment, where everyone knows what you do,” he says. Burying your head in the sand, he advises, will not make the problem go away.
“It is all about engagement, rather than avoiding, and it is about how you manage that process.”
“Research shows that the role of the Managing Director is to be strong, to be forceful in difficult situations. If they are not doing it, then their reputation suffers. Most people regard it as an absolute necessity to do that.”
The experience of Northern Rock CEO Adam Applegarth is a cautionary tale to anyone who thinks they can safely drop their guard among friends. In an internal communication announcing that the Bank of England would support them during the recent financial crisis, Applegarth’s message signed off with the rather flippant “Bloody Hurrah!” which found itself printed across the front page of the Metro the very next day. Bright suggests that to avoid key clients reading negative reports about your firm, it is best to be as honest and direct with them as you are with the media.
“Should a public statement and a private statement be that different anyway? Putting information on your website is the best way. Generally, all issues are complicated, and not as black and white as the press make out. The media will want to put it into two or three paragraphs. You will want to explain it or provide much more information, and the internet is very useful for that.”
Strictly to be avoided is giving one message publicly, and another privately. The risk that private information will be passed on is too great.
“It is all down to trust, and your individual relationships. Email is not secure, and you have to err on the side of caution. You try to say as little as possible about a situation, and you certainly don’t try to dig yourself out of a hole by giving more insights than are necessary. As a rule of thumb, you really shouldn’t say anything that you wouldn’t want to appear in the paper. Everything you say -even to a trusted client- is essentially public.”