Event Description
Speaker: Bruce Hennes, CEO of Hennes Communications
1 Substantive Credit
Description: Traditional media and social media leap on stories like these:
Sexual misconduct…data theft…OSHA & discrimination complaints…active shooter…accusations of fiscal mismanagement…
police misconduct…employee fraud…activist attacks…environmental events…
inappropriate Facebook posts…management transitions…community outrage…regulatory issues
It’s a simple fact: controversies today are tried in the Court of Public Opinion more often than in the Court of Law.
As almost any general counsel of a large company will tell you, legal controversies today are tried in the Court of Public Opinion — at least as much as in any Court of Law. Because the value of a company’s reputation is immeasurable — and perhaps its largest uninsured asset — a corporation loses when the brand image is tarnished, even if the corporation technically wins at trial. Furthermore, since most legal controversies are settled prior to trial, the Court of Public Opinion has arguably become the most important battleground affecting not only good will and market share, but legal bargaining power and settlement negotiations. Managing this battleground, therefore, has become integral to many corporations’ legal strategies. – Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics
News now breaks first on social media, with traditional media sweeping Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube for leads. When your law firm or client is immersed in a crisis or dealing with a hot-button issue, your news can easily “go viral” in moments.
Since it takes a lifetime to build a reputation and only a few seconds to destroy one, “managing the message” is a necessary skill set for attorneys and their clients.
This fast-paced talk by veteran crisis specialist Bruce Hennes from Hennes Communications in Cleveland, Ohio – one of the few firms in North America focused exclusively on crisis management and crisis communications - focuses on a highly strategic approach to communicating during a wide variety of situations, offering methods for establishing and maintaining “control of the message,” enabling you to move your message forward or mount a defense against a sudden onslaught from traditional or social media.
Click here to register or complete this form and send it to elizabeth@lancasterbar.org.
Bruce Hennes is CEO of Hennes Communications, one of the few firms in North America focused exclusively on crisis management and crisis communications. With a client list that includes Goodyear, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Avery Dennison and Ohio University, Hennes Communications serves over 150 clients a year in virtually every market sector – including scores of law firms and their clients - from their offices in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, most of which are “on trial” in the Court of Public Opinion. Bruce has served on the executive committee of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, as well as on its executive committee, for eleven years, making him one of just a few non-attorneys to serve on the board of a major metropolitan bar association. He is also an adjunct professor at Cleveland State University’s College of Urban Affairs. Bruce is well-known in the national legal community. He has done his Crisis Management for Attorneys & Their Clients seminar four times as plenary for the American Bar Association’s Bar Leadership Institute and as a featured speaker at state bar conferences across the country.
