Taras Poshivanyuk, a partner at EQUITY, took part in the event ‘Lawyers and the Media’

Taras Poshivanyuk, a partner at EQUITY, took part in the event ‘Lawyers and the Media: Alliance, Conflict or a Game of Cat and Mouse’. 

In his speech, Taras Poshivanyuk pointed out that a lawyer in criminal proceedings should not take on the role of a PR specialist or PR strategist. This usually happens in cases where there are certain unfulfilled ambitions for self-expression. 

Taras also gave important advice to lawyers working with the media:

◽️Any statements made by a lawyer and communication with journalists must be carefully considered and prepared.

◽️In crisis situations, the work of the PR team and the lawyer should be structured as follows: the lawyer provides the legal substance briefly, and the PR specialist determines where and how to use this information. 

◽️The lawyer must provide the phasing of PR activities in measured doses. This is to avoid revealing the defence strategy or disclosing any additional information that was confidential during the pre-trial investigation.

◽️Care is required in cases where several teams of lawyers are working on the same case. Here, the client must determine who is the lead lawyer on the team and manages communications with the media.

Legal professionals, together with media representatives, discussed journalistic investigations, collaboration with leading media outlets, the public profile of lawyers, legal media, information attacks, ‘leaks’, crises, and the boundaries between defence and manipulation. 

Such meetings represent a joint effort to establish the rules of the game that shape companies’ reputations in the public sphere.