We Serve
Everywhere.
We are deliberately sector agnostic. What our clients share is not an industry: it is an exposure.
Our clients operate in public. Every one of them is accountable to someone: voters, members, regulators, donors, a board, or a court.
- Governments & Public AgenciesCities, counties, states, authorities, districts
- Public Safety & LaborUnions, lodges, locals, employee associations
- Associations & Membership GroupsTrade, professional, and advocacy organizations
- Private CompaniesSole proprietorships, LLCs, partnerships, and corporations
- Nonprofits & Foundations501(c)(3)s and other mission-driven organizations
- Individuals & PrincipalsExecutives, public officials, political candidates, private parties
Governments &
Public Agencies
Cities, counties, states, authorities, districts
Public institutions are judged on their worst day, not the average one.
Cities, counties, states, transit and utility authorities, school systems, and special districts operate under a standard no private organization faces: every decision is a public record, every critic has standing, and every failure is a story about competence in government generally.
We work with agencies on the full range: routine public information programs, service change and rate communications, capital project outreach, emergency and incident response, audit and inspector general findings, leadership transitions, and the sustained work of rebuilding trust after something has gone badly wrong.
What you face
- Incident and emergency response under press scrutiny
- Audit, IG, and oversight findings
- Rate increases, service reductions, and capital projects
- Consent decrees and federal oversight
- Leadership turnover and succession
- Public records requests that become the story
How we help
- Crisis command and rapid-response support
- Public information program design and staffing support
- Council, commission, and board communications strategy
- Community engagement and stakeholder outreach
- Spokesperson training for officials and department heads
- Standing crisis plans and tabletop exercises
Public Safety
& Labor
Unions, lodges, locals, employee associations
Representing people who are held to a standard the public rarely sees applied to anyone else.
Police and fire unions, lodges, locals, and employee associations occupy the hardest communications position in American public life. They defend individual members in moments of intense scrutiny, negotiate against the governments that employ them, legislate at every level, and carry a public reputation shaped largely by events they did not choose.
This is territory we know in detail. We understand contract cycles, arbitration, discipline and due process, pension and staffing fights, reform legislation, and the particular difficulty of communicating to a membership and to the public simultaneously, when those two audiences want to hear different things.
What you face
- Officer- and member-involved critical incidents
- Contract negotiations, impasse, and arbitration
- Reform legislation and oversight proposals
- Staffing, recruitment, retention, and pension fights
- Discipline, due process, and individual member defense
- Internal division and membership confidence
How we help
- Critical incident rapid response
- Contract campaign strategy and public pressure programs
- Legislative and ballot campaign communications
- Membership communications and internal message discipline
- Executive board and leadership media training
- Recruitment and public-image campaigns
Associations &
Membership Groups
Trade, professional, and advocacy organizations
Speaking for a membership that does not always agree with itself.
Trade associations, professional societies, and advocacy organizations have a structural communications problem: the board wants one thing, the membership wants another, the largest dues-payers want a third, and the public position has to hold all of it without sounding like a compromise.
We help associations find the position that is both defensible externally and survivable internally, then build the legislative, regulatory, and public programs that advance it, along with the member communications that keep the coalition intact while it happens.
What you face
- Divided membership and board-versus-staff tension
- Regulatory and legislative threats to the profession
- Member retention and dues justification
- Reputational damage caused by an individual member
- Annual meeting and governance flashpoints
How we help
- Position development and consensus-building
- Legislative and regulatory advocacy campaigns
- Member communications and mobilization programs
- Association-wide message architecture
- Governance and board communications counsel
Private
Companies
Sole proprietorships, LLCs, partnerships, and corporations
The private sector’s hardest audiences are usually public ones.
We work with companies whose commercial success depends on public-sector judgment: firms selling into government, businesses in regulated industries, employers navigating labor and community relations, and technology companies entering public safety and civic markets where the product is only half the sale.
For that last group in particular, the barrier is rarely the technology. It is trust: whether a procurement officer, a council, a union, and a community will accept the thing you have built. That is a communications and public affairs problem, and it is solvable, but not by a sales team alone.
What you face
- Procurement losses that make no technical sense
- Regulatory approval and permitting opposition
- Community opposition to facilities or operations
- Labor actions and workforce communications
- Product, safety, or data incidents
- Public skepticism of new technology
How we help
- Public-sector positioning and capture strategy
- RFP narrative and past-performance architecture
- Regulatory and permitting communications campaigns
- Community and stakeholder engagement
- Crisis and incident response
- Executive visibility and thought-leadership programs
Nonprofits
& Foundations
501(c)(3)s and other mission-driven organizations
A mission is not a message, and funders are not the only audience.
Nonprofits and foundations carry an unusual burden: they must be compelling to donors, credible to regulators, useful to beneficiaries, and legible to press, often with a communications staff of one, or none.
We help mission-driven organizations sharpen what they actually claim, defend it when challenged, and communicate impact in terms that survive scrutiny from a program officer and a reporter alike. We also handle the harder moments: funding crises, governance failures, founder transitions, and allegations that threaten the standing an organization spent decades building.
What you face
- Funding cliffs and major-donor loss
- Governance, board, and founder-transition crises
- Allegations of misconduct or mismanagement
- Political pressure on mission or programming
- Impact claims that do not survive scrutiny
How we help
- Case-for-support and impact narrative development
- Crisis and governance communications
- Advocacy and public-policy campaigns
- Board, donor, and stakeholder communications
- Brand and identity work
Individuals
& Principals
Executives, public officials, political candidates, private parties
Sometimes the institution is fine and the exposure is entirely personal.
Executives, elected and appointed officials, candidates, professionals, and private individuals occasionally find themselves at the center of scrutiny they did not seek and are not equipped to manage. The instinct in that moment, to explain oneself, immediately, to everyone, is almost always wrong.
We provide direct, confidential counsel to individuals: what to say, what not to say, to whom, when, and in what forum. We coordinate with personal and corporate counsel. We manage press contact so you do not have to. And we work on the long tail: search results, professional standing, and the version of the story that persists after the coverage stops.
What you face
- Investigations, litigation, and public allegations
- Media inquiries and unwanted coverage
- Professional licensing and board complaints
- Search results and online reputation
- Resignation, termination, and transition
How we help
- Confidential personal communications counsel
- Media inquiry management and press liaison
- Statement drafting and interview preparation
- Coordination with legal counsel
- Search and social remediation
- Long-term reputation rehabilitation
If your situation is not on this page, it is probably still our kind of problem.
The list above describes where we have spent the most time, not the limits of what we take on. The common thread is an organization or an individual facing a decision that will be judged publicly, and needing someone who has been in that room before.
Ask. The first conversation costs nothing and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right firm.
Tell us what
you are
facing.
Initial conversations are confidential and direct with a partner. If we are not the right firm for your situation, we will say so and point you somewhere better. If we are, you will have a scope and a number quickly.
Active crisis? Complete the form and flag it urgent. We will do our best to respond the same day, including weekends.