Estate Matters Episode 12: Jayne Clemens | Crisis talks: Why estates should prepare a crisis communications plan

Businesses and individuals with a reputation to protect need to put robust plans in place to deal with threats that can damage their name or brand.

Digital media and its social platforms have increased the risk that bad news can spread at greater speed – requiring a swift, thorough and professional response, says lawyer Jayne Clemens, who leads the reputation, defamation and crisis management team at Michelmores, where she is a Partner.

She tells the latest episode of KOR Communications’ Estate Matters podcast of the challenges faced by some of her clients – and the measures she takes to protect their reputations and limit or reverse the damage caused by adverse comments and other threats.

She is joined by KOR Communications’ Managing Director Annette Richman to discuss the work that public relations specialists can carry out on behalf of clients when their good names are put at risk.

Jayne’s clients include high net worth individuals, including landed estate owners, companies and their board members and public institutions. She works at Michelmores’ Exeter headquarters and its London offices.

She tells podcast host Anna Byles that threats come in a number of forms, from the spreading of false information to the breaking of a confidence or data breach. And she warns that the potential abuse of new technology, including the generation of Deep Fakes that use Artificial Intelligence to create a false image of an individual or event for the purpose of spreading disinformation, is changing the nature of those threats.

“It doesn’t matter whether you are an estate owner, a CEO of a large corporate entity or a tech billionaire,” Jayne says. “Seeing false information printed about you in the press or online is difficult and in some cases, it is life changing.”

Support can come from a range of legal specialists including IP lawyers, employment lawyers, commercial lawyers, data protection specialists, insurance specialists and fraud specialists. And Jayne says a number of solutions can be found to a problem, from the enforcement of covenants and other restrictions to action for defamation, malicious falsehood, harassment or trespass.

But she says sometimes clients want and need advice from a PR professional as well as a lawyer.

“I can advise on what’s legal, I can advise on what might be seen as defamatory, but what I’m not, is a PR agent,” she tells the podcast. “If a client is looking for that sort of help then very often we will say ‘use your internal communications team or use a PR agent.’  There are some very good PR agents out there.”

Annette agrees that the services provided by lawyers and communications experts are both valuable when reputations are at risk - and they can complement each other.

She warns that anyone who believes the power of the press has been diluted in recent years needs to think again. “Unfortunately, it is probably worse than ever before because everything is online as well, so the digital footprint sticks around forever,” she says. “It’s not yesterday’s fish and chip papers anymore – it’s there forever.”

But she insists there are ways to restore a reputation – even after negative headlines and online comments have been published. Putting a positive story on a client’s own website, their social media channels or on a traditional media platform can all be useful to balance a story and challenge a negative view.

“We would advise on which media to select,” Annette says. “It comes down to trust. And because of the circles we move in and our knowledge - we know who we can trust to report our side of the story fairly.” 

And she says building a positive reputation over time can be the best protection against suffering damage when things go wrong. “If you are seen to be doing the right thing most of the time, if things go wrong people will give you the benefit of the doubt,” she adds.

Jayne and Annette agree that preparing for a reputation crisis is the best protection. Like an insurance policy - having a plan in place ensures that if a crisis erupts, you are ready. “Forewarned is forearmed,” Annette says.  “Nip it in the bud early – don’t let it snowball.”