Fall 1999

Fall 1999 Postings Volume 1 Issue 2

Two weeks before the press conference introducing Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. as the newest partner in the law firm Schneider, Kleinick, Weitz, Damashek & Shoot, PPI President Marti Mackenzie was stranded in New York because of Hurricane Floyd, a storm with big media hype but little bite in Florida or New York.

"The circumstances that kept me in New York, instead of hiking in Maine, made it easier to rewrite the cover story for the SKWD&S fall newsletter in time to use it as a great introduction piece at the press conference," says Marti. "This is not to say we couldn't have cranked out the revised newsletter in time anyway; it just made the next week considerably less overwhelming."

The big event took place September 29 in the main conference room at SKWD&S's fifth-floor office in the beautiful and historic Woolworth Building in downtown Manhattan. The press kit included the firm's newsletter, photos, an ad slick for lawyers publications and the press release. Mr. Cochran was joined by four of his new partners, Phil Damashek, Arnold Kleinick, Harvey Weitz and Brian Shoot. Mr. Schneider was on trial duty, selecting a jury in Brooklyn.

Despite a "busy as usual" media day in New York, three television stations (including Fox and New York 1) taped segments which aired, and the print coverage was excellent. The New York Times did a thorough piece in its Metro section, describing the merger in a pull quote as a "marriage made in litigation heaven." In addition to stories in the Daily News and a follow-up piece in News Day, the New York Law Journal's front-page story used a photo of Mr. Damashek and Mr. Cochran smiling and shaking hands.

The press conference was co-produced with the Manhattan-based Terri Williams Agency, which has represented Mr. Cochran throughout his career as the host of television's "Johnnie Cochran Tonight," there was great interest in the story from the African-American press as well as radio interviews the day of the press conference. The weekly Amsterdam News did a great piece the following Thursday. Marti describes Johnnie Cochran as "a lawyer who has real presence, not just in the courthouse, but in any room where he speaks so eloquently about working to obtain justice for his clients."

His presence at SKWD&S, which now identifies itself as The Cochran Firm, Schneider Kleinick, Weitz, Damashek & Shoot, will attract clients seeking justice from those people, cities and corporations that have victimized them. As a trial lawyer whose 36-year career largely has been dedicated to litigating personal injury, police misconduct and medical malpractice cases proceeded his prominence as O.J. Simpson's successful defense lawyer, Johnnie Cochran, like many of the outstanding clients PPI represents, is one the best lawyers in America. PPI is extremely proud to be part of keeping that image in the forefront of public awareness.

Welcome Back Nance Cacciatore

When Nance Cacciatore & Hamilton in Melbourne, Floirda, joined forces with eight other Florida law firms to battle the tobacco industry for the state, they dedicated all their resources and time to the fight. In 1995 and 1996, PPI had developed a distinctive new image for the firm and produced a "small town" newsletter for the firm.

As anyone who follows the legal profession knows, Florida's "dream team" of trial lawyers achieved unprecedented success with a multibillion-dollar settlement. Now that the fight is truly over, Nance Cacciatore is ready to resume marketing the firm's outstanding legal services to injured people and referring attorneys. PPI has begun the work to publicize the firm's good works and publish the firm's newly expanded and revised newsletter for the next century.

Visit Our Web Site: Two New Clients Found PPI There www.lawyerpr.com

In 1997, PPI opened its "home" on the Internet. When viewing the site, www.lawyerpr.com, look for comments from our clients, a brief background of the firm and highlights of marketing and media relations achievements for PPI clients. Thus far, two new clients have found out about PPI and hired us to assist them. One, Dan Elias, hired PPI to produce a brochure for his niche-oriented law firm in Rye, N.Y. His expertise includes providing legal, financial and business advisory services to privately and publicly held companies and utilities.

There were times when the message seemed to be a jumble of ingredients that might never meld. But thanks to the concoction of right ingredients - Dan's willingness to spend hours discussing the work he does with industries and cities, a series of probing questions from Marti Mackenzie, and her seven rewrites of the brochure copy - the marketing piece came together.

PPIs second new client who read about us on the Web is Sommer & Engelhart, a general practice law firm in Fairfield, N. J. The law partners at S&E, Goldie Sommer and Ed Engelhart, are two law school friends from very different backgrounds, and who are now celebrating 20 years of successfully practicing real estate, personal injury, business law as well as taking on complex civil and criminal litigation. It has been a pleasure working with them over the summer on their first newsletter, due out this month, and a print ad for an industry journal.

One Good Client Leads to Another Smith Mazure: New York's Finest Insurance Defense Boutique

PPI prides itself on working for law firms with the highest ethical standards and with those who are respected by their colleagues and legal adversaries. The insurance defense firm of Smith Mazure Director Yagerman Young & Tarallo certainly fits that bill.

In late May, the firm retained PPI to take over and completely revamp its two newsletters: The Reporter, with firm features, case reviews and professional news and developments; and The LawGram, the firm's monthly update on significant appellate decisions of interest to their corporate clients.

Marti Mackenzie says, "It was not only important to Smith Mazure that we produce great marketing tools - the firm's managing director, Jay Young, also needed someone one who understands lawyers and has the ability to make deadlines for the newsletters a reality." In the last four months, PPI has published two LawGrams and two four-page, full- color, dramatically improved issues of The Reporter.

Photography: An Hour of Setup; Two Minutes of Real Film

"A picture is worth a 1,000 words." It's true. The right photo makes an article more interesting, conveys a message about the subject, and breaks up the type. If a newsletter article is reviewing a lawyer's recent achievements and he is smiling or looks pleased, then he must have been really successful. If the lawyers looks solemn, perhaps he's in a serious battle with an issue important to the reader. The right photo can say: "This person is pleasant looking, has an appearance of success, an impressive office."

Photos present a very different image of a person than the image that comes across in a face-to-face meeting. This is because the photo is flat, there is nothing to distract from the facial expression, hair, lack of hair, clothing or the person's stance. When a personal encounter takes place, each person sends out his or her presence, a tone of voice, natural lighting and the back drop of real life, a personality and a series of changing facial expressions.

This is why it often takes 30 to 40 minutes to set up for a single shot. The professional photographers PPI uses are skilled in setting up the right lighting for a still shot as well as working with an on-camera flash for action photos. We work togther to style the shot and have it set before we interrupt the client's busy schedule. When our subject or subjects are placed under the lights, we always take a few quick Polaroids to be sure the setting is as close to perfect as we can get it.

By the time we start shooting for real, the majority of the work is done. Within a few minutes, we have the shot we need, and a dozen or so images from which to choose. Over the past 13 years, I have had the opportunity to work with some wonderful photographers: Toby McAffee, Earl Kogler and Ed Malles are just a few.

During that time Marti developed a serious interest in photography and had the advantage of learning on the job.

Suffice it to say, that Marti has acquired some great Nikon equipment, and once in a while, when a photographer isn't handy, she shoots the photos for a client's project.

Mostly, however, Marti sees photography as a pasttime for capturing family, friends and pets and images of the world as she travels. One tactic she uses to get that wonderful photo is to be generous with her film: shoot six or so shots of each image and use natural lighting as often as possible.

For PPI clients, photography is just one of many commendation tools, and we never cut corners to get the best photo possible.

Former Prosecutor Wins a Round

When the Orange County State Attorney fired Christine Lindamod, he not only ignored Florida's law protecting whistle-blowers, he ignored her outstanding record as an effective lawyer working for the people of Florida. At first she had little success attracting attention from the mainstream media.

After an inquisitive hour of interviewing each other, prosecutor Chris Lindamood and publicist Marti Mackenzie decided they shared something important: an intolerance for injustice. PPI agreed to represent Ms.Lindamood, handling the publicity in her legal battle against Lawson Lamar and the Orange County State Attorney's office.

Ms. Lindamood was a dedicated assistant state attorney, and she is also an opponent of pay inequities affecting women. She used her well-honed research and analytic legal skills to challenge the pay and benefits given to male and female employees of the State Attorney's office, providing the state with extensive documentation.

Her first step toward victory occurred on May 14, when Florida's Fifth District Court of Appeal said she was entitled to be reinstated, because, as The Orlando Sentinel stated, "her firing was based on her criticisms about the office."

In addition to the Sentinel story, Ms. Lindamood's victory was covered by local television and radio as well as Orlando Weekly, Central Florida's alternative weekly newspaper, which had previously been the only media to write about her firing and her battle from the outset.

The State Attorney's office also seems to be taking more notice not only of her legal case, but of the fact that PPI is advising her regarding media. State representatives have asked her about the hiring of a publicist in her depositions as well as in media interviews.

Her fight continues.

Not A Moment to Spare . . . Class Action Suit in High-Profile Case On Friday morning, August 27, Ira Leesfield, founder of Leesfield, Leighton, Rubio and Mahfood called to let PPI know that his firm was filing a class action lawsuit against Norwegian Cruise Lines on behalf of two passengers who were on board during a collision with a cargo ship in the English Channel. The story of the two ships had been all over the National news just four days earlier.

The importance of filing the suit at the earliest point was quickly explained by Patricia , one of the two attorney's who prepared the suit. By 4:30 p.m. that day, PPI had reached over a dozer reporters or editors with the story. A press release was faxed, or e-mailed to all key South Florida Media as well as the three wire services covering the story: AP, Reuters and Bloomberg News. The local NBC affiliate interview Mr. Mahfood, lead attorney for the case, and CNN called from Atlanta for his comments.

This was the second time in three months that George Mahfood was involved in a topical news story. When he finalized a settlement on behalf of the class in a suit against an Indiana-based insurance company, it was co- incidently the same day that the company sold a stock offering. As a result, the Wall Street Journal did a prominent piece on the settlement of the class action suit involving the insurance company.

Loyalty Counts

When PPI began planning the Cochran-SKWD&S merger press conference, there were just eight working days to put it all together. Marti Mackenzie realized that a great marketing and public relations move would be to distribute a firm newsletter with the merger as a cover story.

We knew it was possible to write the cover story and have our designers rework the front page, but getting it printed in time was going to be a challenge.

PPI has a long time relationship with Central Florida printer Steve Abbott, an owner of the family- operated Abbott Printing Company. Over the last six years, Steve has and his company have proven to be responsive and quality conscious. While many companies shop around for printing price, Marti and Steve always have talked openly about producing good quality with fair pricing.

As a result, out of our loyal business relationship, when Marti asked Steve to get the newsletter printed in record time, he promised: "We'll do what ever it takes." They did, and PPI is grateful.