The brief: Corpcom was employed by a market-leading law firm to manage market perceptions around a big four bank's disinvestment in the legal firm.
The bank had acquired the law firm with the aim of tapping into a much stronger deal flow in the mergers and acquisitions market, with resultant synergistic benefits in terms of an extended banking relationship. Five years after the acquisition, the law firm's directors re-acquired the firm at a vastly reduced sum. There were allegations of huge destruction of value or of the bank being 'taken for a ride' in the original purchase. In addition, a senior partner of the law firm also sat on the board of the bank.
The timing and history of this transaction was problematic for the firm and had to be positioned in the context of "crisis management". It was anticipated that there would be criticism of the senior partner, from a governance point of view, and allegations of personal enrichment at the expense of the bank's shareholders. It was also possible that there would be calls for his resignation from the bank's board.
The approach: Corpcom developed a holistic strategic approach for the law firm which included media training the spokespeople. A key imperative was to help the spokespeople understand the importance of transparency, sensitivity and humility in the situation, particularly as the firm was regarded with much hostility by the media. The goal was to ensure that the parties involved in the deal would be respected for their actions.
In addition, the agency counselled the partners on dealing with criticism regarding the empowerment issues as well as a name change, re-branding and architecting and managing an internal communications strategy.
The result: As a result of this strategy and the unwaivering support of Corpcom's strategy from the leadership within the client organisation, the law firm suffered minimal reputational damage to its brand and was able to successfully rebrand itself in what could have been difficult circumstances.
