In Steve Rudaini’s new column for leading legal publication Law360, he considers how lawyers can build good relations with the press, and what this might look like.
Steve discusses the benefits of media visibility and provides his expert advice on how to work well with journalists, and the different avenues this can take.
These include developing good relationships, sharing skeleton arguments, providing both on and off the record insights, becoming a commentator, and articles and interviews.
Steve emphasises that it is important to make good connections with journalists:
“A lawyer randomly contacting a potential client one day and expecting them to turn up on their doorstep with a bounty of legal needs would not work, and there is no reason to think the same would happen when trying to be more visible through the media”.
The article also provides clearheaded advice around writing articles, and allays any misconceptions:
“… the worst approach to take here is to write an article before publication is confirmed. Doing so is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole and shows a lack of understanding of the media outlet’s audience or style.”
