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Schillings, a combative UK defamation law firm, will set up its own PR and communications agency for clients looking for a different way to manage reputations.
George Pascoe-Watson, chairman of British PR firm Portland and former political editor of The Sun, has been poached to work with the Prince and Princess of Wales and former communications director for Sir Victoria O’Byrne. O’Byrne to lead the new business. Richard Branson of the Virgin Group.
Both will join Schillings as equity partners in the firm, which has not yet been named.
Schillings has built a reputation in the City for taking on the media and defending clients whose private lives or businesses have come under scrutiny. Many journalists have received a letter from the law firm, which represents executives such as Sir Philip Green and sports professionals such as cyclist Lance Armstrong, Meghan Markle and actor Johnny Depp. people and celebrities. It is also one of the advisors to German payments group Wirecard.
In recent years, however, the company has been shifting its focus to a broader reputation management business. Corporate investigations, cybersecurity and military experts have been brought into its expertise in defamation and defamation law.
The law firm said late on Tuesday that the new practice was set up “to respond to an increasingly complex world in which the license of individuals and organizations to operate has come to depend on reputation, whether it is now in the courts or the court of public opinion”.
It noted the need to address “heightened censorship, digital and privacy threats, smear campaigns, complex reputational risks and overnight cancel culture – exacerbated by the rapid development of the digital age”.
A person involved with the new company said the move marked an “acknowledgment” that “the world is changing and people’s reputational needs are changing…”. . . You do need a slightly more sophisticated and comprehensive toolkit.”
They added: “Schillings acknowledges that (legal avenues) are not always the right solution. Sometimes that’s what clients want. But I think we’re moving to a slightly more nuanced approach. We don’t want clients just getting stuck Crisis, we want our customers to stay with us for a long time.”
The law firm found itself in the process of offloading its business to an outside PR firm, “so it’s definitely a business opportunity,” they said. The agency will seek to grow quickly, with plans to match the size of the legal practice with a similarly sized PR and communications agency, they said.
David Imison, chief executive of Schillings, said: “With the pace of technological change, heightened scrutiny, the proliferation of lies and the impact of cultural and generational divides, the reputation field has never been more complex.”
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