Print Media
“Lanny Davis’ Must-Read Crisis PR Book”, by Ronn Torossian, Odwyers PR, 12.23.13
I’ve always felt that people who work in the top echelons of political communications are aggressive, bright and great at what they do. It is pressure cooked, intense all the time, and work which is high-profile and cut-throat – so much so that if you do a bad job you’ll find yourself out of a job pretty damn quickly.
As such, I found Lanny J Davis’ new book, “Crisis Tales: Five Rules for Coping with Crises in Business, Politics, and Life” to be a very enjoyable read, and something I highly recommend to anyone who works in crisis PR. As White House Special Counsel to the Clinton Family, as he put it, his job was “to help reporters write bad stories as completely and quickly as possible.”
Many years ago, I read “Spin” by Michael Sitrick, and as an author and PR firm owner, have to say that this book is the next best one I have read since then for people on the front lines of actual hands-on crisis PR work.
For full article, click here.
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“Clinton White House Crisis Manager Dings Obama’s Message Team”, by Frank James, NPR, 5.13.13
Lanny J. Davis, a former special counsel for President Clinton, is a man who knows something about managing a White House crisis. And he isn’t exactly impressed by how President Obama’s aides have handled the fallout from numerous crises, from Solyndra to Benghazi and now with the Internal Revenue Service controversy.
“Honestly, I voted for Obama. I support his policies,” said Davis, who was a special counsel during Clinton’s second term and has that, among other things, handles messaging when things fly apart for his clients.
“His crisis-management communications team is absent without leave. Ever since we lost the message on health care, I’ve wondered if there’s anybody there trying to get out in front on the facts. And I haven’t seen any evidence” of it, he said.n Russ LLP to map out a crisis strategy for one of their clients in what became known as the Rent-Way case.
For full article, click here.
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“Crisis management at its best”, by Matt Chandler, Buffalo Law Journal, 4.29.13
Though he is best-known as a confidant of President Bill Clinton and as former White House special counsel, Lanny Davis also has carved out a career in crisis management. The attorney and author recently released “Crisis Tales: Five Rules for Coping with Crises in Business, Politics, and Life,” and a chapter in the book is dedicated to a case with strong local and regional ties.
Davis worked alongside a team of Buffalo attorneys from Hodgson Russ LLP to map out a crisis strategy for one of their clients in what became known as the Rent-Way case.
For full article, click here.
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“Lanny J. Davis, Crisis Consultant to the Stars”, by Andrew Goldman, New York Times Magazine, 4.19.13
In your book “Crisis Tales,” you write about helping embattled clients like Martha Stewart, Charlie Rangel and Penn State. Did you clear it with them first?
No, I didn’t. I sanitized with a Simon & Schuster lawyer anything that even came close to attorney-client privilege. I knew that once I ask them, I have to accept edits, and once I accept edits, it’s not my work any longer.
How did these people who hired you to manage their scandals feel about all their old skeletons being dredged up again?
I chose chapters that vindicated the person that I was writing about. I’ve gotten all positive reactions.
For full article, click here.
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“Clinton confidante Lanny Davis weighs in on social media”, by Matt Chandler, Social Madness, Buffalo Business First, 4.25.13
As I prepared for my interview with former White House Special Counsel Lanny Davis, I had a burning question on my mind, though it had little connection to his planned trip to Buffalo next week to promote his new book, “Crisis Tales.”
Davis is an attorney who has built a career as the go-to guy when things get ugly — a crisis manager. It’s a reputation that he solidified when he was brought in to the West Wing back in the 1990’s to act as the fireman for the White House and his longtime friend Bill Clinton.
For full article, click here.
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“Lanny Davis’ Crisis Management Rules: Tell It All, Tell It Early, Tell It Yourself”, PR News, 3.25.13
More than a quarter century ago, the Nixon crisis managers in the Watergate scandal made all the fundamental mistakes that make a bad crisis worse: deny, deny, deny; then the “limited modified hang-out”of partial disclosure, then the cover-up; and finally, after the inevitable dribble, dribble, dribble of facts leading to critical mass and the final explosion, the resignation of a president of the United States.
For full article, click here.
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“Lanny J. Davis Book Launch Party”, Capitol File
For full photo album, click here.
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“BOOK REVIEW: ‘Crisis Tales’”, by John Coyne Jr., Washington Times, 3.18.13
When his phone rings late at night, Lanny Davis tells us, it could be someone such as Martha Stewart, Rep. Charles B. Rangel, former Sen. Trent Lott or the CEO of Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. Or it could be Gene Upshaw of the NFL’s Players Association, Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder or Penn State President Rodney Erickson.
At best, the dilemma is a problem of perception that can be solved with a focused public-relations campaign, or just the right persuasive words to the right people. At worst, it’s a potential full-blown scandal, threatening to destroy personal, political and financial reputations, as well as individual human lives.
For full article, click here.
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“An excerpt from Lanny Davis’ “Crisis Tales: Five Rules for Coping with Crises in Business, Politics, and Life””, by Morning Joe Staff, MSNBC, 3.14.13
RULE 1: GET ALL THE FACTS OUT
The first and mandatory question is: What are the facts? And the best way for a crisis manager to get access to all the facts directly and reliably is to be a practicing attorney protected by the attorney-client privilege. (It’s not enough to do public relations and have a law degree—the courts require actual law practice and legal advice to obtain the protection of the “privilege.”)
This does not mean that public relations and political advisors aren’t needed. To the contrary. But ideally there are attorneys who can be a bridge between the two worlds—an agent for the PR team to convince the attorneys they need to get the facts out; and an agent for the attorneys with the PR team to be sure that what is said to the media is factual and complete and won’t carry legal risk.
For full article, click here.
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“6 life lessons from the man paid to do damage control for the stars”, by Courtney Shea, The Globe and Mail, 3.14.13
Lanny Davis is one of the more influential people you may have never heard of – most of his work happens behind the scenes. As a crisis manager, Davis’s objective is to avoid headlines for Bill Clinton, Martha Stewart and other public figures who have been caught with their pants down (both figuratively and literally). Here, the author of the new book, Crisis Tales shares his secrets to success.
Be your own moral watchdog: The best advice I’ve ever gotten is something my dad told me when I was younger: He said, ‘whatever you’re going to do, just assume you’re going to get caught.’ Sometimes just imagining the negative consequence is enough to deter a potentially bad decision. I have passed down the same thing to my son.
For full article, click here.
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“Lanny Davis on the basics of crisis management”, by Patrick Gavin, POLITICO, 3.13.13
Lanny Davis knows a thing or two about handling crises, perhaps most notably from his time as a White House special counsel for President Bill Clinton.
“That was a major challenge to crisis management,” Davis told POLITICO about his time in the White House from 1996 to 1998.
And now, Davis, who launched the public affairs firm Purple Nations Solutions in 2012 along with former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, is putting his best advice into what could be interpreted as a self-help book for politicians: “Crisis Tales: Five Rules for Coping With Crises in Business, Politics, and Life.”
For full article, click here.
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“Lanny Davis’s advice to Sen. Menendez: Tell everything you know about ongoing scandal”, by Rick Klein, Olivier Knox, Richard Coolidge, and Jordyn Phelps, Yahoo! News, 3.13.13
Crisis management expert Lanny Davis, famous for advising former President Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, has some advice for public figures who find themselves wrapped up in a scandal: “Tell it all, tell it yourself, tell it quickly.”
Davis, whose new book “Crisis Tales: Five Rules for Coping With Crisis in Business, Politics, and Life” hits bookshelves today, says one of the biggest mistakes that people and corporations make in dealing with public relations crises is to try and hide ugly truths.
“While the instinct is hide the bad facts, what I’m advising is, the worse the facts are, the earlier you should put them out yourself, get them out, and then address them yourself,” says Davis, who points to the ongoing scandal facing Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) as a present case study for the need to come out with the whole truth early.
For full article, click here.
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“Davis’ Brand Is Crisis”, by Neda Semnani, Roll Call, 3.8.13
“I love chess,” Lanny J. Davis said over lunch. “I love a challenge.”
Davis, the nation’s go-to crisis manager, looks nothing like television’s version of a scandal eraser. He doesn’t have the pouty lips of Kerry Washington (“Scandal”), nor is he as perfectly nasty as Don Cheadle in “House of Lies.” Davis is all crinkly eyes and earnestness that belie the nerves of steel he must have to do his job.
Davis is all crinkly eyes and earnestness that belie the nerves of steel he must have to do his job.
He rose to prominence in the late 1990s when the White House hired him. Davis was brought on to give to his former Yale Law School friend Hillary Rodham Clinton and her husband, Bill, a needed assist.
For full review and interview, click here.
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“In new book, Lanny Davis recalls prayer meeting with Jesse Jackson, Trent Lott”, by Nikki Schwab, The Washington Examiner, 3.7.13
Legal crisis manager Lanny Davis wrote 13 chapters filled with “Crisis Tales” for his new book of the same name, but there was only one story that he needed permission to publish. That chapter, Davis’ favorite, was the story of how then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., prayed his way to redemption after his Senate leadership-toasting toast to the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., back in 2002.
Lott, as you may recall, touted Thurmond’s anti-civil rights presidential platform at his 100th birthday party. “And if the rest of the country had followed our lead we wouldn’t have had to deal with all these problems over the years, either,” Lott had said. His words snowballed into a scandal, and he was forced to step down from his leadership gig.
For full article, click here.
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“A Book Party for Lanny Davis Features Bipartisan Back-Slapping”, by Carol Ross Joynt, The Washingtonian, 3.6.13
Controversy, heat, and hatred may follow Lanny Davis wherever he goes, but for a book party he knows to stack the deck with friendlies—of both parties—and a camera from C-SPAN just in case. Tuesday night he crammed almost 300 wine-sipping and cheese-nibbling “friends” into a space for 150 at the Hamilton to officially launch his latest book, Crisis Tales. The book is his recollections of the ups and downs of his crisis management career, with the notable and the notorious appearing on the pages. A little Bill Clinton here, a little Martha Stewart there, some Dan Snyder, Trent Lott, and Charles Rangel, plus a misbegotten foray into the nasty business of an Ivory Coast tyrant.
The guests included former RNC chairman Michael Steele, who is a business partner of Davis; Republican congressman Darrell Issa of California, who is chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform; Ted Olson, who was solicitor general in the George W. Bush White House; conservatives Cal Thomas and Grover Norquist; author Ron Kessler; and Democratic congressmen Elijah Cummings of Maryland and Chaka Fattah of Pennsylvania. Most of them took turns posing with their “good friend” Davis, singing his praises and making light of the mixed-bag nature of the guest list.
For full review and interview, click here.
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“Crisis manager who advised PSU board of trustees second guesses some decisions” – A Look Into Crisis Tales, by Susan Snyder, Philadelphia Inquirer, 3.6.13
A nationally known crisis manager, who has helped a star-studded cast including President Clinton, Martha Stewart and Sen. Trent Lott, has written a new book, including an afterword on his work with Pennsylvania State University’s board of trustees in the aftermath of the child sex abuse scandal.
In the just released “Crisis Tales: Five Rules for Coping with Crises in Business, Politics and Life,” Lanny Davis second guesses some decisions around the independent investigative report by former FBI Director Louis Freeh and the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s reliance on the Freeh report as the basis for unprecedented sanctions against the university.
For full article, click here.
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“Rahm *&#!ing furious at Rangel” – A Look Into Crisis Tales, by Geoff Earle, NY Post, 3.6.13
WASHINGTON — Rep. Charles Rangel really got under the skin of top Obama adviser Rahm Emanuel when the ethically challenged lawmaker delivered a tirade before Congress, according to a new account.
“What the ?%!# are you and Rangel doing?” Emanuel, then charged with re-electing Democrats to Congress and later President Obama’s chief-of-staff, screamed in a phone call to Lanny Davis.
Davis, who was advising Rangel on how to spin to the press a series of reports on Rangel’s ethics problems, recounted the 2008 conversation in his new book, “Crisis Tales,” replacing the expletives with punctuation marks.
For full article, click here.
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“Lanny Davis, Darrell Issa: D.C. Scene”, by Stephanie Green, Bloomberg, 3.6.13
Attorney and TV commentator Lanny J. Davis celebrated his new book, “Crisis Tales: Five Rules for Coping With Crises in Business, Politics, and Life,” with a wine and cheese reception last night at the Hamilton.
Turnout was strong and bipartisan. Host James Wholey, partner and co-chairman of the government-affairs group at law firm Dilworth Paxson LLP, marveled at “what you can accomplish with an open bar.”
Davis has made his name as a virtual crisis fireman for a range of clients from Clinton to Martha Stewart. Representative Darrell Issa, the California Republican and chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and his fellow committee member Representative Elijah Cummings, the Maryland Democrat, paid homage to Davis for forging partnerships on both sides of the aisle throughout his career.
For full article, click here.
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“The Ins and Outs of Crisis Management From Lanny Davis, a Seasoned Veteran”, by Carol Ross Joynt, The Washingtonian, 3.1.13
Davis has thrived since. He is a familiar face on television talk shows—called in either to defend a client or to offer opinions on one scandal or another. Over the years his clients have included Martha Stewart, Dan Snyder, the Office of the President at Penn State University, former Senate majority leader Trent Lott, the cruise ship company Royal Caribbean, congressman Charles Rangel, Gene Upshaw and the NFL Players Association, Macy’s, and at least a couple of African nations. He was a Yale classmate of George W. Bush, who, as President, appointed him to a civil liberties oversight board established under the Intelligence Reform Act.
Davis has put his crisis management experiences and lessons together in Crisis Tales, his third book, a page turner for anyone who thrives on adrenaline or the tribulations of big shots. It begins with the “five rules of crisis management.” They are 1) get all the facts out, 2) put the facts into simple messages, 3) get ahead of the story, 4) fight for the truth using law, media, and politics, and 5) never represent yourself in a crisis. He will tell you he learned that last one the hard way.
For full article, click here.
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“Putting partisanship aside, Issa and Cummings to attend Lanny Davis book party”, by Judy Kurtz, The Hill, 2.28.13
Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) don’t agree on much, but they’ll both be attending a Washington book party that is turning out to be one of the hottest tickets in town.
The Oversight and Government Reform Committee leaders will join a bevy of bipartisan co-sponsors hosting a party Tuesday to celebrate the release of Lanny Davis’s fourth book, Crisis Tales, at The Loft at The Hamilton in downtown DC.
The former special counsel to President Clinton, who runs the communications firm Purple Nation Solutions with former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, says even he was surprised when the RSVPs started rolling in.
For full article, click here.
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“Crisis perspectives”, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 2.24.13
A term that connotes heightened urgency and vast importance regarding whatever it’s applied to, “crisis” probably is overused — but then again, its plain meaning suggests something that’s unwise to ignore. Here are new and upcoming titles worthy of attention that deal with contemporary crises of various sorts from different perspectives.
“Crisis Tales: Five Rules for Coping with Crises in Business, Politics, and Life” by Lanny J. Davis (Threshold Editions, available March 5) — The author, a well-known Democrat attorney, commands respect across the political spectrum. Special counsel to Democrat President Bill Clinton, he was among Republican President George W. Bush’s Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board appointees. And cosponsors of his upcoming D.C., Philadelphia and New York City book-launch events include Ted Olson and David Boies, the opposing Bush v. Gore counsels who joined forces to litigate against California’s Proposition 8 gay-marriage ban; fiscal-conservative icon Grover Norquist; and Republican Tom Ridge and Democrat Ed Rendell, former Pennsylvania governors. In the book, Davis distills mistakes, triumphs and lessons learned while advising Clinton, Martha Stewart, U.S. Rep. Charlie Rangel, Whole Foods and other clients into rules for surviving scandals and salvaging reputations. Noting that silence and denial don’t play well in the court of public opinion, he urges those in such straits to get ahead of the media by telling their stories themselves — and in full.
For full review, click here.
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