Approach
Facts first, then words
We are often asked what makes a crisis firm good. Our answer is unglamorous: a partner who answers the telephone, a discipline about facts, and a written record of every word a client has agreed to say.
01 How a matter works
From the first call to the close
Most of our matters begin with a telephone call, often to the 24-hour line, often from a general counsel. The partner who takes the call stays with the matter until it closes, whether that is in a day or in three years.
The first hour belongs to the facts. Before we write anything, we help the client establish what it knows, what it does not know and what it can safely say. The first statement is short and true, and it will still be true at the end of the day.
Within a few hours the matter is opened properly: it is given a codename, a team and a record, and the client’s lawyers are brought in if they are not already there. From then on, every external word goes through the record.
- 0 min Call to the 24-hour line
- 15 min Duty partner calls back
- 1 h Facts established; holding statement approved
- 3 h Matter opened; codename; record started
- 5 h Team in the room; lawyers on the call
- 8 h Message house agreed
- 12 h First listening report
- 18 h Second statement, if the facts allow
- 24 h Board briefed; rhythm for the days ahead
02 The record
Every approved line, written down
On every matter we keep one document that records each line the client has approved for use, with the date, the time and the name of the person who approved it, and each line that has been withdrawn. Spokespeople work from it; so does our duty partner at three in the morning. When a matter closes, the record becomes the client’s account of what it said and when, which is often the first document its lawyers ask for.
Behind the approved lines sits the message house: the plan of what the client most needs people to understand and the evidence that supports it.
RoofThe one thing the client most needs people to understand
- Pillar 1What happened
- Pillar 2What it is doing
- Pillar 3What it means for those affected
03 Codenames
Why our documents do not name our clients
Every matter is given a codename on the day it opens, and every document we write for it carries the codename rather than the client’s name. Codenames are drawn from a list kept by our records team. They are never reused, they are chosen to mean nothing, and if anyone outside the matter could guess from one which client it refers to, we have chosen badly.
The practice dates from 2004. Since April 2025 our client documents have been held in a client extranet, with a named account for each user, and the codename is the only name a matter has there.
04 Conflicts
One side of a matter
Before we accept any instruction, our risk committee checks it against every current matter. We act for one side of a matter only. Where the interests of two clients could conflict, we decline one of them or, if both give their informed agreement, act for both with separate teams and an information barrier between them. The committee records its reasons in every case.
05 Limits
What we will not do
- We will not help a client say something we believe to be untrue.
- We will not create accounts, profiles or personas to speak for a client, or pay anyone to do so.
- We will not pay for coverage, or offer anything of value to a journalist.
- We will not obtain private information about anyone, or use pretexts to obtain information of any kind.
- We will not contact a regulator, court or investigator on a client’s behalf without the client’s lawyers knowing.
- We will not comment publicly on any client, current or former, or confirm that an organisation is a client without its agreement.
06 Fees
How we charge
Crisis matters are charged by the hour, at rates set out in our engagement letter, with an estimate for the first week. Longer matters are usually charged by a monthly fee for an agreed amount of work. Readiness work and narrative risk assessments are charged at a fixed fee agreed in advance. We do not charge for the first call to the 24-hour line, whether or not it becomes a matter.
Our standard terms of business are published as a PDF.