The Intersection of PR and Legal Strategy in Crisis Communications

Why Lawyers Take the Lead in High-Stakes Celebrity Scandals

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been following the Sean “Diddy” Combs scandal like a horror series. Earlier this week, five new lawsuits dropped, one that alleges he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl at a VMA afterparty.

His case has the potential to implicate dozens of celebrities. The restructuring of the narrative has already begun. Celebrities who used to boast about attending Diddy’s White Parties are adding the detail that they always left “early” before “anything crazy happened.” Suddenly, no one was his friend, they just wandered into his parties, looked around, and then went home. Sure.

When a high-profile celebrity like Diddy faces a new scandal, journalists seek interviews with communications experts, hoping to accurately infer how the celebrity’s team will respond to mounting rumors and legal issues. With so many celebrities involved, journalists want to know how celebrities implicated in new lawsuits might try to spin the narrative.

But young journalists — and the public — should know the fundamental distinction between a communications expert and a legal expert in these scenarios.