Washington Needs More Public Relations (and fewer lawyers)

Our President, 40 percent of the Cabinet, the entire Supreme Court and 45 percent of our Congressional representatives – including nearly half of the feisty House freshmen -- are lawyers, trained in the adversarial system of law, a process that is focused on winning, rather than finding the ultimate truth or compromise.  This may work in the court room, but is it the best approach for problem solving and dealing with the major issues that face our nation? For most lawyers, their income is derived from conflict – not resolution. I think it’s safe to say America needs less conflict and more resolution.

Despite the public’s misconceptions, the practice of public relations, on the other hand, is focused on helping organizations and their publics adapt mutually to each other. According to the official definition of Public Relations, “Public relations helps our complex, pluralistic society to reach decisions and function more effectively by contributing to mutual understanding among groups and institutions. It serves to bring private and public policies into harmony.”

Consider the past winners of the coveted “Best of Silver Anvil” award at the Public Relations Society’s prestigious, annual Silver Anvil Awards:  The National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition in 2011 for its Text for Baby campaign; The United States Air Force in 2010 for its approach for honoring fallen American Service members; and Northern Illinois University in 2009 for the way it handled a campus shooting.  

If you look at the history of the public relations profession, it’s undergone the greatest growth during the most turbulent times – during war, financial crisis or insurrection. When people are under duress and need to come together, they crave communication, search for credible, honest and authentic leaders, and yearn for engagement and interaction with their peers and centers of influence.

And while our legal colleagues certainly own the intellect and necessary knowledge, skills and abilities that enable them to draft and understand laws, are they the ideal candidates to reach mutual understanding that our nation craves today? To be clear, most of the lawyer I know are experts on the law, generally very bright, passionate and take their ethical responsibilities very seriously. The question isn’t their intelligence, it’s their adversarial approach to problem solving that I question.

Consider too that lawyers, by training, are skilled at harboring information while public relations professionals are set on advancing the free flow of accurate and truthful information which is essential to serving the public interest and contributing to informed decision-making in a democratic society. While public relations is often associated with Washington spin and deception, I contend that this perception is driven by political operatives and rogue CEOs – many of whom are lawyers – and not true public relations professionals who commit themselves to a code of ethics. Most public relations professionals I know see themselves as the antenna, conscience and voice of their organization and take seriously their role in reminding those they server that institutions operate with the permission of their publics.

Washington doesn’t need winners and losers – the core focus of our legal system – it needs individuals who understand the value of trust, credibility, communication and most importantly, compromise. Our public relations code of ethics is clear and our mandate true; in the marketplace, we provide the voice for ideas, facts, and viewpoints to aid informed public debate. That’s what America needs now, more than ever – ideas, facts, and a healthy public debate.