Holding statement
We are aware of reports circulating on social media and are urgently investigating the situation.At 06.40 today a fire started in the packing hall at our northern plant. All 46 people on shift are accounted for. We will publish an update at 10.00.
Crisis and reputation counsel, London and New York
We advise boards, general counsel and chief executives on what to say, and when.
01 What we do
Seven kinds of counsel, one team
Most of our work begins with a telephone call from a general counsel. It may end in a statement, a hearing, a board minute or, quite often, in a decision to say nothing at all.
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Crisis readiness
Plans that fit on a page, exercises that hurt a little, and a board that has rehearsed its first hour before it needs to.
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Crisis response
A partner on the telephone within a quarter of an hour, a team in the room by the afternoon, and every line written down.
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Regulatory and public affairs
Consultations, inquiries, licensing decisions and appeals, and the correspondence with regulators that decides how they read everything else.
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Litigation communications
Working beside a client’s lawyers on disputes and investigations, so that what is said in public never has to be explained in court.
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Issues anticipation and narrative risk
Knowing which stories could be told about a client, and by whom, before anyone tells them. Run by the Desk, our research team.
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Board and executive counsel
Private advice to chairs, chief executives and general counsel on leadership changes, governance disputes and their own position.
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Digital listening
What is being said about a client online, how far it is travelling and who is carrying it, reported twice daily during a matter.
02 Selected work
Case studies
Published with our clients’ agreement, and without their names.
- 2026 A global industrial group facing a regulator’s revocation Industrials and infrastructure
- 2025 to date An optics group under scrutiny Technology and data
- 2025 An equipment lender after a service interruption Financial services
- 2024 to date A heritage association during a product recall Heritage and cultural institutions
- 2023 A private bank after a data exposure Financial services
- 2022 A national museum returning part of its collection Heritage and cultural institutions
03 Journal
Recent writing
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Precision is not evasion
Clients are sometimes told that a carefully worded statement looks evasive. A statement that is exactly true and no wider than the facts is not evasion. It is the only kind that survives.
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Writing for two audiences: the regulator and the record
Every statement made during an investigation is read twice: once by the public on the day and once by the investigator months later. Only the second reading has consequences.
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What we changed after February 2025
A year after one of our message houses was published by a newsletter, the findings of our review of document handling, and what we have done about each.
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Board readiness survey 2025
We asked 212 directors of listed companies and large private groups in the United Kingdom and the United States how ready their boards are for a crisis. 61 per cent have never rehearsed one.
04 Sectors
Where we work most
- Industrials and infrastructure
- Healthcare
- Financial services
- Heritage and cultural institutions
- Technology and data
- Professional services
Our clients rarely remember the statement. They remember the forty minutes before it, when somebody asked what was actually true.
Recognition Crisis and Issues Consultancy of the Year (independent), Reputation Counsel Awards, 14 May 2026. More
If you need us now
A partner is on duty in each office at all times. Leave a name and a number and the duty partner will call you back, usually within a quarter of an hour.
- London +44 (0)20 7946 0592
- New York +1 212 016 4495