Your lawyer and your communications advisor may not always be on the same page – but in a crisis, it’s imperative to get them in the room together, fast.

I’ve seen it happen all too often: An organization in the middle of a firestorm. An angry public demanding answers. And company lawyers offering their legal advice: say nothing.

It’s understandable. It’s their job to protect their clients from legal risk. The problem is, silence isn’t neutral. And it means you no longer get to write the first draft of your story. 

But framing the decision as “speak or stay silent” is too simplistic. This is not a choice between “should we listen to comms or legal?” Neither should be dismissed. But each require a different approach and a different measure of success, and it’s important to realize they operate on different timelines. While you are choosing between your company’s legal exposure and your community's trust, you've probably already waited too long.

Delaying communication out of fear of making the wrong move has its own consequences. Silence can read as guilt, indifference, or  arrogance. And in the age of social media, silence is often filled by others ready to come to their own conclusions. While a lawsuit could play out over months or years in a controlled legal setting, reputational damage plays out in real time, in public, and can compound. The longer you wait to say something, the harder it is to undo the narrative someone else has written for you in the meantime. 

Where I think many organizations go wrong is that they treat these two types of risks separately. Usually, legal counsel takes precedence, and the comms team is brought in later to figure out what can be said within the boundaries legal has established. Organizations that navigate crises well understand that they need both in the room from the start, so that together you can answer the question:  How do we say what we need to in a way that protects us? Because the reality is you can usually say something. At the very least, you can acknowledge that something has happened. You can signal that you take it seriously. You can communicate