25/03/2019

"Kommersant" published an article about the "subtleties of the profession" Legal PR

The Interview to development Director of Bureau Natalia Klein to the newspaper "Kommersant".

Relationship between a law firm and its PR-service only seems to be formal at first glance. But it is necessary to look closer, and this part of the conservative legal business turns into a bright insigt: the ability to walk on thin advertising ice, to find a balance between legal dogmas and the dynamics of digital marketing, to determine which methods — an absolute taboo, and which — in the error zone-thes is only a part of the skills of Legal PR specialists. "Kommersant" talked with markets of leading "Ilf" and "rulfo" about such aspects as how to convince lawyers to be active in the media, whether it is possible to carry out a quality PR campaign without a budget, and other details of the profession.

— It is known that a legal business is conservative. Taking this this conservatism into consideration, does a PR specialist of a law firm always have to follow a well-trodden path in his work, the copy/paste method? Can he at least sometimes follow the unspoken rule "if everyone wants it, we must do the opposite"? Tell us about successful examples of breaking stereotypes that have worked positively in your practice.

Natalia Klein, development Director, Pavlova & partners law office»:

The market of Legal PR services and tools are not fully formed yet and are rather limited, but, of course, new tools appear. Due to the conservatism of the market and the rather rigid framework established by professional ethics, and sometimes the law, it is not so easy to experiment with here, but it certainly needs to be done, including for the development of competition and improving the quality of legal services in Russia.

— On the other hand, any innovations in the conservative industry are always like a thin ice, and anyone who dares to use new tools for the market risks to get a strong negative effect. Please tell us about the brand of taboo topics. What methods in Legal PR can never be used?

N. K.: Legal services are often compared with medical services: they are just as "sensitive" and often require an "intimate" and a conservative approach. Therefore, in law, as in medicine, too innovative tools can be scaring. For example, the patient may be alerted by the doctor's offer to cure the flu with a remedy that has not yet been used by anyone, so "you can be the first." Similarly, in legal services, the offer of "non-standard" and "innovative" methods of solving the problem can discourage the client as far as in this area a conservative approach and best practices are valued.

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Ирина Кошечкина

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