When lawyers stupidly get in the way of marketing

At many organizations, the legal department is heavily involved in marketing and communications initiatives, frequently requiring every blog post and press release to be vetted by a lawyer.

In some extremes, corporate legal eagles even forbid employees from starting a blog or participating on Twitter and Facebook at work.

This problem can be so pervasive that I know people who call the legal department the "communications prevention department."

I've found that the restrictions come down to two factors: ignorance of social media and a lack of trust in employees.

RISK

Legal people want to mitigate risk. So they naively think that saying "NO" is the best approach. No to blogging. No to Twitter. No to Facebook.

They say "no" from an ignorance of the value of the new tools of marketing and PR in real time.

Yet from a communications perspective, the most risky thing you can do is hide behind "no comment."

Since legal people don't usually understand real-time media themselves (and don't use them for business in their jobs), they naturally respond by just slapping on controls. After all, their job is to reduce risks within a company, so it’s temptingly simple to just say no.

This is especially true in companies that mistrust their employees. However, if a company trusts its employees and understands that social media can be a powerful way to do business, then it is the lawyers' job to create an environment where you can do what you know is right.

Are you allowed to look over the lawyers work?

Just an aside... I find it really interesting that marketing is never invited to review the corporate lawyers’ work. Shouldn’t we clean up some of the gobbledygook-laden letters that go out to important customers?

But no – they can get into our knickers, but we can’t get into theirs.

What you need to do

My recommendation is to work with your managers and your organization's legal team (and perhaps the human resources department as well) to create guidelines that you can operate under. Your company’s guidelines should include advice about how to communicate in any medium, including face-to-face conversations, presentations at events, email, real-time media, online forums and chat rooms, and other forms of communication.

Rather than putting restrictions on real-time media (that is, the technology), it’s better to focus on guiding the way people behave.

You may have to take the lead on creating the guidelines at your organization, but the effort will be worth it.

Image: Shutterstock / EmiliaU

Comments

[Bradley H Smith]

THIS is pervasive in my niche of working with public companies on shareholder communications / investor relations. VERY VERY few pub co are involved yet.

My blog last week: TRYING to give tactical "jump-start" http://muncmedia.typepad.com/retail_investor_targeting/2011/06/social-media-advice-for-investor-relations-install-tweetdeck-and-lurk-listen-and-learn-.html

Article in Reuters today in fact > http://blogs.reuters.com/reuters-wealth/2011/06/27/how-investors-can-use-twitter/

[Nicole]

Thanks for sharing the post... It will really help me a lot... I find your post very interesting and very informative... Thanks for sharing it... I hope to hear more from you soon...

[Ian]

Alternatively, quit the bad old corporate world, set up on your own and write what you darn well like on your blog...

Hang on, you did that already...

Ian

[David Meerman Scott]

Bradley -- thanks for being a pioneer. There are so many scaredy cats out there. And it takes people like you to educate public companies.

Ian - exactly. I was nearly 18 years working for big companies. Now 8 years on my own.

[Bill Royce]

I have been fortunate on several occasions in my career to be allowed into the legal den to turn their drafts into plain speaking English and to scrutine their text from an issues perspective, especially where vulnerable customers were involved. The fact I have some legal training helped establish the working relationship and earn credibility. If communicators want to be equals and partners with legal (or other corporate functions), we need to know their space well enough to add value.

[Tim Penning, PhD, APR]

PR is about the court of public opinion and is fostered through relationships, which are aided by technology as well as transparency and two-way open communication. Lawyers are trained to control communication, to know the answers before they ask questions, to make one-way statements in a court of law.

What is often not discussed is the legal liability prevention of enlightened public relations with ALL publics (not just customers) that creates an organizational environment of trust and mutual respect. There are case studies of issues management preventing crises (which may have involved litigation) that lawyers should be made aware of.

[David Meerman Scott]

Bill - you're right. Communicators do need to know a bit about the legal sides of things to be effective. Thanks for the reminder.

Tim - Many thanks for the succinct descriptions. I appreciate you jumping in.

[Gary Chow]

Great article! Could not agree more. In a previous life I worked as a marketing bod for a funds management firm and often found large swathes of my advertisements, marketing collateral etc nixed by the legal team, which irked me no end. In many cases the disclaimers they forced me to include took up more of the page than the ads! These were the days before the Internet and social media, so I can imagine how difficult it would be for marketers now. A book called 'Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom' covers this topic well.

[Tacanderson]

I learned first from running "Web 2.0" campaigns when I was at HP and then helping clients across Tech, Consumer and Health Care when I crossed over to the agency side that you should never ask a lawyer *can* you do something, ask them *how can* you do something. Make them part of the outcome not a barrier to the outcome.

[Barbara Lemaire]

I agree, the best defense to Lawyers taking over communications is to produce a solid Social Media Policy. Lawyers are paid to worry about the what if...a very good Social Media Policy spells out the what ifs and the consequences. To make sure everyone is on the same page the organization should provide education to everyone on the policy and on how to interact online. No only will the lawyers worry a lot less but you may create a number of employee brand advocates.

[wites and kapetan]

Some companies can actually use this an advantage, especially if you're into daring marketing strategies. You'll never know when legal advice becomes priceless, because a lot of companies have been drowned in lawsuits for their "boldness."

[sacramento attorney]

Saying NO too often can end up in loss rather safety.