Legal crisis management (LCM) is how a lawyer responds to a crisis that can potentially harm a client or the client’s business processes.
This article calls attention to the three objectives of legal crisis management. It also discusses how these objectives can help ensure a client’s crisis will be dealt with efficiently, maximizing the likelihood of success.
The Objectives of Legal Crisis Management
1. Contain the Immediate Crisis
When a crisis emerges, a lawyer’s first action is to contain the crisis. To contain the crisis, the lawyer decides which issues should be dealt with first and which should get left on the back burner. This is not meant to cause controversy but to emphasize the constituents of every decision, which include:
- Business/ Operational;
- Legal; and
- Communications/ PR.
In addition, there are driving forces that help contain a crisis, including:
- Commercial;
- Public policy; and
A lawyer knows how to balance the constituents and driving forces, which helps contain the crisis at a moment’s notice and allows for the continuation of business processes.
2. Rapidly Solve the Problem at Hand
The second objective of crisis management is solving the problem at hand. To solve the current problem, a lawyer must first identify what caused the crisis — which is not always easy.
The lawyer will turn over every stone in their search for what caused the crisis. After finding the problem, the lawyer will classify it as technical (problems related to equipment, suppliers, or production) or human (problems related to employee dissatisfaction, motivation, and conflict) and identify the strategies needed to solve it.
Next, the lawyer will partner with experienced communications and public affairs experts to develop appropriate media and public affairs strategies.
Lawyers understand that every case is unique, and handling each case is essential to developing a cool-headed strategy to help solve the problem rapidly.
3. Position Clients to Achieve Their Long-Term Objectives.
A crisis can devastate a client, the client’s employees, and the client’s business. During the first critical hours, a lawyer combines rapid response with strategic guidance to:
- Contain the immediate crisis, minimizing harm to the client, the client’s employee, or the client’s business processes;
- Look into what caused the crisis;
- Formulate a strategy, considering operational, legal, and PR, as well as commercial, public policy, and moral;
- Implement a strategy by partnering with experienced communications and public affairs experts.
By taking the above steps, a lawyer can promptly contain and solve a crisis and ensure that the client’s business operations are not negatively harmed or affected by the crisis. In turn, this positions clients to achieve their long-term objectives in a way that minimizes foreseeable reputational, economic, and legal harm.
Get a Crisis Management Lawyer to Help You Handle Your Crisis
If you are going through a public relation, business, or litigation crisis, you can count on a crisis management lawyer to help you handle your crisis. A crisis management lawyer will contain the immediate crisis, solve the problem rapidly, and position you to achieve your long-term objectives.
You do not have to go through the crisis alone. Contact a crisis management lawyer and let them help you through this difficult time.
