Legal

The remit of the PRCA Legal PR Group is to allow learning and networking amongst PR practitioners who work in the legal sector or have an ambition to do so.  It’s also aimed at anyone involved in litigation PR on behalf of their clients.  The Group provides best-practice advice on legal and litigation PR as this sector of the PR industry continues to grow and evolve.  The Group will also provide regular updates on legislative developments that have an impact on the PR industry.

Who's involved?

Our members are communications consultants in agencies that work with the legal sector and in-house staff at law firms. Also agency and in-house PRs who work on litigation PR mandates for their clients.   We welcome people with all levels of knowledge and aim to be as inclusive and collaborative as possible. Whether you are an experienced legal PR or learning the ropes, please do come along to our meetings to have some fun, share best practices and learn from others.

Ben Girdlestone

Ben is Joint Managing Director of Byfield. He has over 25 years’ experience in corporate communications and has worked with major professional and financial services brands, most recently at Magic Circle law firm Slaughter and May where he led the communications team for seven years.

Ben offers clients strategic internal and external communications counsel, supported by his deep understanding of the legal sector. Throughout his career, he has gained insight into the key issues facing law firm leaders, including ESG, attracting and retaining talent, diversity & inclusion and the future of work as we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic into challenging economic times. Ben helps clients tackle these pertinent issues and creates communications strategies that influence firms’ key internal and external stakeholders, including employees, clients and regulators.

In his role as Joint Managing Director, Ben plays a pivotal role in enhancing Byfield’s profile for providing reputation counsel to support the brand building and business development campaigns of leading law firms, and to protect their reputations during crises and disputes.

Leor Franks

Leor is director of business development, communications & marketing at the London-based law firm Kingsley Napley. He has spent over 20 years in the legal and professional services sectors in a combination of comms/BD/marketing leadership positions, as a fee earner, and originally as editor of an industry magazine.

 He has built award-winning teams in his five director / CMO roles across a range of types and sizes of professional service firms, including at Deloitte, EY, FTI, and Augusta, in addition to his current board role at Kingsley Napley.

 Leor also sits on the boards of industry body Managing Partners’ Forum and the University of London Queen Mary Business School. He chairs the Metropolitan Police Cannons Ward Panel and the Managing Partners’ Forum Marketing & Strategy Group.

 He is a regular conference speaker and chair, and has authored numerous articles on professional services industry comms, BD, and marketing, published across legal and marcoms titles. He is a graduate of both Oxford and Cambridge PS firm leadership programmes and holds chartered financial and investor relations qualifications, and a master’s in business.

To find out about speaker opportunities, please contact events@prca.org.uk.