Communicating During the COVID-19 Crisis

One area that has been especially hit hard is the communications function. Why is that? A few reasons:

• In-person meetings and events are impossible — now and for the foreseeable future. That means that for lawyers to stay connected with their clients, they need to communicate more often.
• COVID-19 presents myriad legal issues for companies, from human resources policies to data security, so lawyers have myriad opportunities for creating content to educate and advise. Some lawyers also may have some time on their hands, as certain practice areas area slower due to the pandemic than others — so that gives those lawyers more time to write and publish. That means law firm communications professionals have more to manage and help with.
• Things are changing so quickly during this pandemic that if you aren't "first to market" with your piece of content or analysis, you get lost in all the other law firm communications. You have to react fast, write fast and get it out fast.

The Bigger Picture

Since most firms have their attorneys and staff working remotely, that presents a plethora of challenges — especially for those involved in communications. Not only are the processes of how we write now more convoluted and complex but the volume of communications as increased — both externally and internally. At my firm, Sheppard Mullin, our lawyers are blogging significantly more than they have before and our Chair routinely sends out an email internally updating the entire firm with the latest news about returning to the office, how the firm is managing the COVID-19 pandemic, and how the firm is faring financially.

Some of the bigger issues affecting communications include:

• There is more to do. And it's not as easy/streamlined as it was.
• There are significant time constraints. Both on getting communications out and on the time our readers have to devote to reading them.
• More is not always better. Being thoughtful about what you put out, how it's packaged and how often you communicate with clients is critical.
• What it means. Legal analysis of COVID-19 is good (and important) — but more important is making sure clients understand how things affect them and what they need to do. It's all well and good to provide an exhaustive legal journal-type examination of a particular COVID-19 issue, but if you can't be specific and clear about what it means to your client and what they should do, anything you write and push out is worthless — and clients will start to ignore you.
• Stand out. Almost all law firms are putting out more content — the market is saturated. Competition for client time and attention is fierce. If your communications don't stand out, they will get lost in all the other noise.

A Few Basic Suggestions

While there are many things you can do to help manage your firm's communications connected with and during the COVID-19 crisis communications, here are a few initial suggestions:

• Create a hub or central location on your website for all your firm's communications involving COVID-19. That will make it easier for clients to find what they're looking for and will demonstrate your firm's comprehensive understanding of the myriad issues that COVID-19 presents.
• Make sure that whatever content you push out contains the answer to "What does this mean to me?" Clients what to know why they should read what you've sent out and what impact it might have on them.
• Follow the old content structure philosophy:
  • Tell 'em what you're going to tell 'em;
  • Tell 'em;
  • Tell 'em what you told 'em. By doing that, you can ensure that your messaging gets across and that clients will see the value of your communications

• Make your communications easily and quickly digestible. Time is even more of the essence now and so you need to make sure your readers can grasp what you're saying quickly and understand what they need to do.
• Remember the CORE approach: Create Once, Repurpose Everywhere. If one of your attorneys does a presentation involving some of the novel legal issues presented by COVID-19, have her turn that presentation into an article — or vice versa.
• Don't be afraid — even during this complex time — to try new communication tools. COVID-19 has made meeting by video almost second nature — so think about how/if you can incorporate video into your communications

Advice from Experts

I reached out to a few industry colleagues to get their perspectives and insights on law firm communications during this pandemic. (Many thanks to Cheryl, Laura and Ryan for sharing!) Here are some of their thoughts and tips: