By Bruce Hennes, CEO, Hennes Communications Before James Comey headed up the F.B.I., he served as general counsel of Lockheed Martin Corporation. While at Lockheed, he spoke at the National Security Agency about how studying law is similar to the education intelligence analysts receive. “You read a case and decipher…relevant facts, the [outcome] of the case…you are […]
By Thom Fladung, Managing Partner, Hennes Communications The Court of Public Opinion is now in session. In fact, it’s always in session – on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media outlets. The practice of litigation communications or litigation public relations is young, as legal and communications matters go, emerging in the early 1980s, according to […]
How do you handle the situation where you’re dealing with a client whose attorney doesn’t want to issue a statement other than, “No Comment”? [By Stephanie York, JD, Hennes Communications] As an attorney, I understand the knee-jerk instinct to say “We don’t comment on pending litigation.” When we are faced with attorneys who counsel their […]
From our good friends at Thompson Hine, attorneys Tom Fehrer and Karen Rubin: Last week the media was abuzz with the allegations made against the National Enquirer by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and the owner of The Washington Post. The details in Bezos’ blog post about his ongoing dispute with the Enquirer and […]
From Homeland Security Today As a political standoff shut down the government for 35 days, homeland security professionals scrambled to continue the mission. From Russia to China, to cyber attacks and near daily mass shootings, read on for where we should focus as a nation and in our communities. We reached out to our cadre […]
From Homeland Security Today Gate 15’s David Pounder asked Homeland Security Today Managing Editor Bridget Johnson to help paint a threat assessment for the year ahead for the benefit of critical infrastructure entities and Information Sharing and Analysis Centers and Organizations. We share that Q&A here for the benefit of all HSToday partners and readers. In […]
Written by Lisa Leopold, Associate Professor of English Language Studies, The Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, Middlebury. “I’m sorry.” These two words may seem simple, but the ability to express them when you’re in the wrong is anything but – particularly for those in the public eye. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, to […]
Q: How can my organization use legal privilege to protect sensitive information when we’re dealing with a communications firm and discussing with them a controversial issue or a crisis? A: [From Stephanie York, Hennes Communications:] You can never ensure that sensitive communications will fall under the attorney work product doctrine – ultimately, a judge must […]
By Thom Fladung/Hennes Communications The reaction is typical. Watch what happens when a business, organization or news outlet removes a user’s post from a Facebook page, website or comment string. “Censorship!” “You’re violating my free speech rights!” “You’re trashing the First Amendment!” Well, no. None of that has happened. The laws around social media use […]
[By Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications] David Wolowitz is a brilliant attorney who advises independent schools all over the world on every prickly nuance of crisis management and risk avoidance. He recently penned “A Crisis is Coming. Is Your Board on Board?” that offered seven steps independent schools should take to plan for, and deal with, […]