Crisis Management & Media Relations

Williams Kastner, in its never-ending effort to stay ahead of the changing needs of its clients, was one of the first law firms in the nation to develop a Crisis Management & Media Relations Practice Group.  Over the past three years, the Group has provided crisis consultation to its many clients in matters involving catastrophic building collapse, explosion & fire incidents, food borne illness,  toxic & noxious gas/chemicals releases, landslide & earth movement incidents, multiple severe personal injury/fatality incidents, software piracy, hazardous waste incidents, corporate e-discovery and e-document management crises.  In addition, the Williams Kastner team now provides pre-incident crisis management plan design and development services, crisis management team selection services and corporate spokesperson and crisis team training seminars.  The ultimate goal of our practice group to take your company far beyond your competitors in crisis management and media preparedness.

The Crisis Management & Media Relations Practice Group is comprised of select attorneys who have experience dealing with media inquiries and governmental investigations in the aforementioned crisis matters as well as:

• Toxic Releases
• Product Tampering
• Food Borne Illness, Food Poisoning and Adulterated Food Products
• Work-site Catastrophic Incidents
• Government Audits, Inspections and Search Warrants
• Employee Misconduct, including Theft, Embezzlement and Workplace Violence
• Product Recalls
• Workplace Harassment
• Labor Relations

The Group also provides a comprehensive range of Crisis Management services including:

• Crisis Management Awareness Seminars
• Emergency Response Plan Development and Training
• Crisis Management Plan Development and Team Selection
• Crisis Management Training for Company Spokespersons and Team Leaders
• Crisis Simulations and Testing
• Crisis Preparedness Audits
• Crisis Management Plan Maintenance
• Media Training
• Crisis Communications & Strategic Planning
• Senior Management Level Counseling
• Media & Government Relations
• Strategic Public Relations
• Product Recalls
• Product Reintroduction
• Complex Litigation Support

The attorneys who comprise the Group have various backgrounds and work experience in Civil Engineering, Aeronautical Engineering, and Criminal Prosecution.  They also have experience as National Coordinating Counsel for Product Liability & Toxic Tort Claims; Product Liability, Construction, Land Use, Environmental & Intellectual Property Litigators; County Prosecutor; and U.S. Armed Forces.  In addition, the Group’s outside expert consultants include forensic science and medicine professionals, engineers in all specialties, bilingual psychologists, bilingual safety consultants, grief counselors and many other specialists to assist in the management of catastrophic crises.

With each and every situation, we work with our clients as part of the Crisis Team to help maintain control and effectively manage the crisis.  As part of our high performance teamwork, we work with our clients to develop a master plan budget with timelines, milestones and personnel resource allocation assignments.  This allows the client's Crisis Team to operate in a highly efficient, high performance environment and to track its progress in resolving the crisis situation.