Paramjit Mahli is a public relations professional. She will teach a course called “Clash of the Titans: Can Lawyers and Journalists get Along?” at Solo Practice University®.
Paramjit Mahli has worked in both journalism and PR for over 20 years, with experience working within news outlets such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Financial Post, CNN, CNNfn, and The Journal of Commerce. Clients have included Ron K Shelp, author of “Fallen Giant, The Story of Hank Greenberg and AIG” and numerous small law firms and financial services firms throughout North America.
Ms. Mahli is a member of the Public Relations Society of America, ABA, Bronte Society in UK, and is frequent contributor to American Bar Association’s Law Practice Today and New Jersey Law Journal. She is also sought out frequently by the media in both US and UK, and regularly gives Continuing Legal Education Credit on media.
She is the Founder of The Rainmakers Roundtable which provides business development training that specializes in providing business consulting and mentoring services for small to mid-sized law firms worldwide.
She also authors the blog Profiting with Public Relations.
Syllabus – Clash of The Titans – Lawyers and Journalists Can We Get Along?
How public relations builds a lawyer’s book of business.
Too many attorneys fail to understand how public relations work. They think an advertisement promoting their firm counts or that ONLY high-profile litigation cases receive media attention. Nothing could be further from the truth. Every day hundreds of small and medium-sized law firm are quoted in widely-read publications, raising awareness of their firm and gaining credibility as experts in the marketplace. Firms that don’t realize this suffer from missed clients.
The truth of the matter is that public relations is at the heart of every good marketing plan for ALL law firms.
Common reasons cited by attorneys for not incorporating public relations are: not having enough time, a lack of understanding of its role, or the dearth of resources to make public relations part of their business development plans.
Coupled with long held stereotypes of the press, such as reporters’ interest lying with big law firm news or reporter’s only wanting the drama and not the facts, and the cynicism reporters have towards attorneys, it’s no surprise that media relations is frequently relegated to the bottom of business development activities, particularly if the firm has already achieved some “visibility” that did not result in new clients.
The irony of course, is that both groups need each other for their work. Reporters are continually seeking sources for their stories, and attorneys need to get more than their qualifications, out in the market place. In other words, they need to get known, liked and
trusted in their target market. Worse in today’s cynical world where the former masters of the universe are highly distrusted building your reputation is critical.
Course Outline:
- How to become a source for the press?
- The press is not the enemy public v court room arena
- Stay calm and focused in the media spotlight
- Develop a clear purpose
- Handle controversial questions off the record v on the record, etc.
- Understand how media work
- Prepare for the unexpected
- Basics of Crisis Communications that every lawyer should know
- Media relations basics especially advertising v public relations (biggie with lawyers)
- What constitutes news?
- What lawyers need to have before they start on their own public relations
- Benefits of being an expert—how to start building the expert portfolio
- What’s the point if you don’t know how to leverage it all
- Other public relations tactics to use to build your position
- Tools: online press rooms, bio’s, blogging, etc.