Fascinating story today posted by Vanessa Blum over at The Daily Business Review
A messy affair between a Miami corporate attorney and a married mother of four has turned into a PR disaster for a highly respected law firm, White & Case.
This excerpted from Blum's article:
First came mass e-mails from the woman's husband detailing liaisons between his wife and an associate in the firm's Miami office. Then the lurid e-mails landed on a popular legal blog where more than 100,000 people have viewed them.
The associate's name is not being published by the Daily Business Review. He did not respond to a phone message by deadline Monday or an e-mail sent Friday to his law firm address. A home phone number listed in the blog material for the associate is not accepting incoming calls, and a cell number reaches a recording saying it is not a working number.
For White & Case, the unwanted publicity raises a question all law firm managers and public relations professionals should consider: If an employee's dirty laundry gets a public airing, how can a law firm respond to minimize the damage?
Asked about the matter, White & Case spokesman William Sancho in Miami offered a brusque "no comment."
Hours later, an official firm statement came out: "This is a personal matter for the individual involved, and we cannot comment on it."
Todd Templin, executive vice president of Boardroom Communications in Plantation, Fla., said he would have counseled the firm to take a different approach.
"I would make it clear the actions of the attorney are an embarrassment to the firm, and I'd make the point that they are not indicative of the values and quality legal work that the firm is known for," he said.
It's something crisis management professionals often refer to as "getting in front of a story."
"If you don't tell your story, someone else will," explained Chris Marlin, who heads the Miami office of Sitrick & Co., a public relations firm specializing in crisis communications. "It's rare that ignoring a situation that is as open and notorious as this gets you any benefit."
By now most South Florida lawyers have likely heard the smutty saga of "Miami White" and "SexyLexus," as the lovers were dubbed by the Web site Above the Law. The husband described his wife as a porn star, but she responded on the blog, "It's a camera-site. That is all it is. I am not in contact with anybody, there is no contact between me and anybody on that camera-site." She also said she has been separated for a year and is planning a divorce.
The e-mail also has been widely circulated in South Florida legal and business circles, through a viral series of forwards.
According to the e-mail, the purported husband of "SexyLexus" was in Canada for weeks launching a new business, far from his wife and their four children under 6.
When he returned, he found text messages suggesting his wife was carrying on multiple affairs, including one with the White & Case lawyer.
"When you decided to start sleeping with my wife while I was out of town over the last few weeks (May 27 - June 7, 2009) you threatened my way of life, and you really hurt a lot of people," one e-mail stated.
In a subsequent e-mail, the man said his wife appeared on a pornographic Web site and met fans for sex.
"Can someone at White & Case please help me and talk some sense to your colleague?" he wrote.
Two postings about the alleged affair on Above the Law generated about 130,000 page views and nearly 400 comments, according to blog editor Elie Mystal. They received more than 28,000 views on the New York gossip site Gawker.
Even the Wall Street Journal's generally highbrow Law Blog linked to the entries.
The Miami office of White & Case has grown to roughly 90 attorneys since opening in 1987 and is known for corporate, banking and project finance work in Latin America.
While clients probably won't bolt over the "Miami White" scandal, it hardly projects the image of stability and discretion most law firms work hard to cultivate, said Jonathan Groner, a law firm public relations consultant in Washington.
"Any law firm these days, just like any corporation, needs to protect its reputation," he said.
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