Communicating during change and crisis: PR Advice for Law Firms

Last week LexRex Communications MD Victoria was on the phone to clients to reassure them that, even with the anticipated school closures, the team would be continuing to support and to check-in on their plans with regards to what they should be saying to their clients; in particular how to reassure, provide information and update on service delivery during the coronavirus outbreak.

Most of our clients have in place disaster plans that cover exactly this sort of thing. But we recognise that the current situation isn’t necessarily something that everybody would have prepared for.

Accordingly here are some top tips from Victoria for approaching communications with your clients as the UK to adapt to the daily changes and uncertainty caused by the epidemic.

1. Stay up to date with government advice. It’s important to know exactly what the official advice is, and to follow it.

2. Review your disaster plans, including the communications elements of these. Try to keep these up to date as the official advice changes.

3. Communicate with staff. It’s really important to maintain an ongoing dialogue with teams and where possible provide reassurance.

4. Communicate with clients. How you do this will depend on your existing relationships with clients, the services you provide and how your firm works. Communicating may look like fee earners picking up the phone for a reassuring chat, could be a holding statement on your website, a statement via social media, an email, even a letter. Ultimately you need to consider what will work best for your clients.

5. Recognise that this is a developing situation and that you cannot control it. Also, remember that people like to feel looked after, and your communications should aim to be reassuring, realistic and informative.

The situation is evolving constantly and the team here at LexRex Communications are on hand if you would like particular advice on any of the above.