Lawyers, PR Firms Team Up For Employers Facing #MeToo Crises

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From Gayle Cinquegrani:

The days of quiet exits by powerful executives caught harassing subordinates may be ending.

CBS is the latest corporation faced with cleaning up an embarrassing workplace situation while the world watches. And nearly a year after someone first put a hashtag before the words “MeToo,” some employers are realizing they need advice from more than lawyers when harassment allegations arise.

“Clients who in the past have not worked with crisis communications managers now are asking about having them involved,” Ann Marie Painter, chair of the labor and employment practice at Perkins Coie, told Bloomberg Law.

The role for crisis communications “is not to influence the legal outcome but to put the company in a better position for reputational recovery at the conclusion of the legal action,” Laura Guitar, an executive vice president at rbb Communications, said. Since #MeToo, “we are being brought in more often, either by the company itself or by legal counsel.”

The resignation of long-time CBS chief executive Les Moonves came with a promise that he and the company “will donate $20 million to one or more organizations that support the #MeToo movement and equality for women in the workplace,” CBS said in a press release.

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