Journal
The Journal
Essays, notes and surveys by the people of the firm. Everything here was read by the editorial committee before it was published, which is why there is not more of it. RSS feed.
2026
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Precision is not evasion
Clients are sometimes told that a carefully worded statement looks evasive. A statement that is exactly true and no wider than the facts is not evasion. It is the only kind that survives.
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Writing for two audiences: the regulator and the record
Every statement made during an investigation is read twice: once by the public on the day and once by the investigator months later. Only the second reading has consequences.
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What we changed after February 2025
A year after one of our message houses was published by a newsletter, the findings of our review of document handling, and what we have done about each.
2025
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Board readiness survey 2025
We asked 212 directors of listed companies and large private groups in the United Kingdom and the United States how ready their boards are for a crisis. 61 per cent have never rehearsed one.
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Our own message house, read aloud
On 10 February a trade newsletter published a message house we had written for a client. What happened, what a message house is, and what we have changed.
2024
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Recalls are a test of record-keeping
A recall is announced once and reported for years. The reporting is where trust is won or lost, and it depends on records kept before anybody thought they would matter.
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When the licence is the story
For operators of licensed autonomous systems, the regulator’s decision is published at a time of the regulator’s choosing, in the regulator’s words. What the operator says next is the only part it controls.
2023
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The apology problem
Lawyers fear the apology and the public expects it. The law in most of the places our clients work is more forgiving of apologies than either side assumes.
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Narrative risk: a note for boards
Boards keep registers of operational, financial and legal risk. Few keep one of the stories that could be told about them, or of the people most likely to tell them.
2022
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Listening is not the same as watching
Digital listening should tell a client what is being said about it, by whom and how far it is travelling. Where it stops is a choice the client should make on purpose.
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What a regulator hears when you say you are cooperating fully
Regulators read press statements. Some of them keep a file of the adverbs.
2021
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Silence is also a statement
Saying nothing is sometimes right. It is never neutral, and it should be chosen, written down and reviewed like any other line.
2020
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Crisis readiness when nobody is in the office
Every crisis plan we reviewed this year assumed a room. Twelve changes for a team that will meet on a call.
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Message houses are not scripts
The message house is the most useful document we write and the most misunderstood. It is a plan of what is true and what matters, not a set of sentences to recite.
2019
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Holding statements are read in court
A holding statement is the first document in a file that may end in a courtroom. It should be drafted as if counsel for the other side will read it aloud.
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The first hour belongs to the facts
Most statements issued in the first hour of a crisis are later corrected. The ones that are not were written by someone who waited forty minutes.