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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
From the Pew Research Center: Social media sites have surpassed print newspapers as a news source for Americans: One-in-five U.S. adults say they often get news via social media, slightly higher than the share who often do so from print newspapers (16%) for the first time since Pew Research Center began asking these questions. In […]
From our friend and colleague, Karen Rubin, attorney at Thompson Hine in Cleveland, Ohio: Do we need another reminder about the perils of posting internet comments on cases and matters we are connected with? Apparently we do, and here’s a strong one. Earlier this month, an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana was […]
By Thom Fladung/Hennes Communications The wild west of social media just keeps getting wilder, doesn’t it? Consider these court rulings, from the past few months: In Virginia, a federal appeals court ruled that an elected official violated the First Amendment by temporarily blocking a constituent on Facebook, the Washington Post reported. In Northeast Ohio, a […]
[by Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications] This may be a shocker, but you knew it was coming: More Americans now get news from social media than from print. I’ll say that again: More Americans now get their news from social media than from newspapers. That’s according to a new report out by the Pew Research Center. […]
From Kevin Miller, writing for Bloomberg: (Bloomberg) — Bosses of the world’s largest corporations are still learning to deal with one modern peril: when President Donald Trump shows he’s not afraid to call them out on Twitter. General Motors Corp. is the latest example. Even though Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra reached out to to […]