Speaking Out or Staying Silent: A Guide to Creating Communications Plans for Bars

Why Have a Plan?

Hennes, who has nearly 40 years’ experience in the communications field and is the public member of the CMBA board, shared the reality of today’s media landscape: “The only thing that counts is the speed of your reply.” With the ubiquity of social media, and a trend towards iterative journalism, it is imperative to get your side of the story out quickly. “Generally speaking, whoever goes first determines the trajectory of the story,” said Hennes.

And when your bar is asked to take a position on a public issue, having a set plan in place can bolster your bar’s reputation, as well as allay member concerns that bars aren’t listening to their members. “We believe that we have to have a policy. We have to have a thoughtful process that is a defensible process, and that is used consistently time after time after time as we consider what we’re going to say and when we’re going to say it,” said McMahon.

Where to Start?

Bars can start making a communications response plan by convening a meeting with volunteer leaders and key staff members. Ask everyone to share their potential “worst nightmare” situations for the bar. These could be responding to an inappropriate social media post from a prominent lawyer, allegations of corruption in the legal community, or even an IT security incident. When thinking about your bar’s responses to these scenarios, keep these questions in mind, “What do you say? Who do you say it to? How, when, and where do you say it?

Get all the potential situations all written down and start to triage the situations to ones that are most likely to happen. Hennes said that for the sake of time, most bars will only need about 12 to 15 prepared statements. Bars should then write up statements responding to these potential scenarios—while adding details specific to the situation as the events warrant. In addition to public messages, bars should also develop messages aimed at their membership. This prevents bars from scrambling when a reporter calls requesting comment or getting an angry phone call from a member, because the statements have all been preapproved.

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Photo Credit:  Dall-E