Luigi Mangione’s Pennsylvania attorney is demonstrating what not to do in a high-profile case. Basking in the glow of TV lights, Attorney Thomas Dickey is doing everything to make the case about himself—not his client.
As someone who practices and teaches crisis communication, I’ve found myself watching, open-mouthed, as Dickey takes a sledgehammer to every bedrock principle of crisis communications.
Crisis Communication at Its Worst
My first look at Dickey in action was when he did interviews in the lobby of his law firm,conveniently situated in front of a wall bearing his name. And then there was the 18-minute spontaneous news conference where he demonstrated that he wasn’t even entirely up to speed onthe case. After only representing Mangione at one court hearing early Tuesday, he claimed his client had already entered a not-guilty plea. Reporters had to correct him. “As long as he hasn’t pleaded guilty, that’s all I care about,” he joked in response. Clearly, this was all about him and his opinion of his client’s innocence. A particularly cringe-worthy comment came during the news conference when he said, “I haven’t seen any evidence that they’re having the right guy.”
The horrifying thing is that we can expect more of this.
It’s how the Altoona, PA, attorney rolls. A Dec. 11 article in the Wall Street Journal quoted another Pennsylvania defense lawyer, Theodore Krol, about Dickey this way: “He shoots from the hip. He jumps right in…He doesn’t shy away from the media at all.”
Here are a few truths for anyone representing a client who is attracting media attention:
- You won’t know the whole story in the early days of a crisis. That means your initial statement needs to concentrate only on what you do know rather than what you think.
- Initial responses are best done in writing. This allows you to control the message without getting drawn into a conversation. Do reporters, bloggers, and social media content creators love it? No, they do not! But if that’s all you’re giving out, they will probably use it.
- Entertaining a crowd of reporters will encourage you to come up with what you think are interesting sound bites. Nine times out of 10, that will make for clickbait-worthy quotes that won’t serve your client well in the end, ones you will probably have to walk back.
- Attorneys are not PR people. We each look at the world and the case differently. Attorneys know the law. We know the news. Whether it’s legacy or social media, the best outcome for your client is when we combine our talents, create messages and focus on the case rather than the attention.
- None of this is about you. Attorneys who believe they are the stars of the case often need to remember who the client is.
In Conclusion
The bottom line is that clients involved in high-profile cases are best served by the combined talents and viewpoints of attorneys and PR people. While making a case about the attorney may raise their visibility, it does not ultimately serve the client well.
A version of this blog post appeared in the New York Law Journal
