Who we are and our values

MD Communications is an international PR agency supporting clients all over the world, in all aspects of communications including legal PR, legal directories, social media strategy for lawyers and law firms, crisis communications, brand management, thought leadership, international growth strategy, training courses to build your media profile, and all aspects of reputation management.

Our communication experts have over 20 years’ experience in media and PR, both in-house and in agencies, and provide a modern approach to reputation management that is insightful and innovative.

Founder Melissa Davis has created an agency adept at assisting clients in tackling all aspects of PR and communications in a fast-paced, tech-driven economy. She previously ran the PR and media department for the Law Society and was profiled in The Times and PR Week when she established MD Communications nearly 10 years ago.

Legal PR that delivers impact

Specialist Public Relations support is vital to build and enhance reputation, start new conversations with your target audiences and establish a market-leading profile. The opportunities to grow brand awareness through cost-effective PR are unprecedented.

Achieving differentiation in the legal market directly impacts the bottom line of firms and chambers in this crowded market. With 24-hour rolling news to opinion pieces, we guide clients through the plethora of options facing them, including business and legal sector press, web-only publications, blogs and social media.

Why should law firms have PR?

The changing face of the legal sector has long been in the making and there has never been a greater opportunity to truly differentiate yourself in a crowded market. Technological advances, the rise in boutique law firms, evolving working practices have all played their part in how the industry is rapidly evolving. Investment in the right PR agency can support those looking to make an impact.

Why do you want coverage?

It is annoying to see a competitor get attention. But it is still worth considering why coverage for a practice or individual would be a good thing. 

It is a crowded market out there. Good PR can play an important part in building credibility and making your law firm stand out.

Melissa Davis, managing director

It is important to reflect on a series of questions that will help set a strategy: ‘Are you trying to expand into a new practice area? Build the profile of new partners or a team of associates ready for a succession? Secure the public profile that an organic move into a new business sector deserves? Or maybe you have a case that needs careful media handling, or a current case which needs some bookbuilding support?’

In a Law Society Gazette article on how to make the most of PR, Melissa  explains: ‘The most common objectives of clients are around raising awareness in the market and the understanding of their core offering.’

A law firm may already have a fairly high profile, but an unbalanced one. In other words, the firm is known for the wrong thing, and that is affecting business. This is ‘less usual’, she says, while noting another popular objective: ‘More and more firms are looking to put up more junior members of the team as the spokespeople and will ask their agency to build a profile from scratch, despite there being partners who are already very well known.’

A focus on one or more departments or sectors allows you to focus on the key stars – not necessarily the partners – who will have the stories to tell, the work highlights to mine and who can help identify the themes that will fuel PR, the data points that can be used and even the thought leadership that can be scoped and developed.

Melissa Davis, managing director

Our head office is in London and in addition we have desks in New York, Edinburgh and Sydney and we are looking to expand further in Europe in 2020. As we expand, we are committed to staying true to our values. Our priorities are the complete satisfaction of our clients and our team’s happiness and fulfilment. We operate flexible working and place great importance on work-life balance.

Why choose MD Communications?

It is critical to select the right PR agency that provides a measurable return on your investment. When instructing a PR company, we outline our approach that really makes the most of the opportunity to create your own space in the legal world:

Eye on the bigger picture

PR needs to create relevant and timely opportunities to bolster the credibility of your firm, whilst reaching hearts and minds. The value of PR lies in its ability to create trusted connections.

At the heart of this is the overall business strategy of a law firm or chambers – we make sure we understand your long-term goals from the outset to hit the ground running.

Depth of expertise in legal PR

The team offers decades of high-level expertise, with strength across the whole team to advise on your marketing strategy, from legal PR and legal directories consultants, to journalists and research specialists.

The combination of experience and proven proficiency allows the team to help clients generate genuinely exciting opportunities and find new ways to develop their profile.

One of our key values is that a happy team results in happy clients. Every member of our team has an executive coach and we are developing a mindfulness programme for clients and our own team to ensure that we have the healthiest and happiest minds at your disposal.

Individually tailored service

The bespoke MD Communications service ensures that support is unique to your needs. We advise many businesses in the professional services arena including law firms, accountancy practices, barristers chambers, recruitment agents, costs and pricing specialists and litigation funders in relation to their growth plans and handling the media spotlight where necessary.

An individually tailored mix of options – covering legal PR, legal directories support, litigation PR, crisis communications, thought leadership and social media – is designed to streamline and innovate existing strategy and create new options and opportunities. We agree these objectives and channels from the outset.

Building relationships that add value

We act as an extension of our clients’ teams as a trusted partner, to support when teams are under-resourced and we often act as a third party to give our insight into a new approach or campaign.

Whatever the level of support you require, we adapt to your needs and can quickly pick up the nuances of the situation being faced in-house. We help you achieve your goals by identifying these from the outset – whether this is driving web traffic, downloads of thought leadership pieces, enquiries or book-building for new cases, we establish how we can define success on an ongoing basis.

International coverage

We work internationally to promote clients in their home jurisdictions as well as overseas, using all the tools we have at our disposal. We are heavily involved in the IBA and Managing Director Melissa is involved in its committees and panel discussions.

We invest in the latest technology so that we can be nimble and cost-effective and provide our clients with full visibility on what we are working on at any time of the day and night.

With offices across time zones, we are working towards a 24-hour service meaning you have PR cover whenever you need us and can speak to a member of the team at any time.

From the heart of London to all over the world

Our London office is in central London on High Holborn. From here we have grown a business that assists clients all over the world in crafting legal reputations that deliver genuine results, from Bank to Belgium, Denmark to Dubai.

We are here to secure the recognition your experience deserves and ensure that you become the legal adviser of choice in your field of expertise.