Schillings-Reputation managers with a reputation problem?

[matgb]

Hmm, this is, I think, rather amusing. Those, um, impartial advisers acting as lawyers for Alisher Usmanov say on their site:

Using the law to protect reputations is our specialism.

Hmm. Well done guys, use the blunt instrument of the law to protect your clients reputation. What about your own reputation? Matt Wardman points out Defamation Lawyers now have a Public Relations Problem. Seriously, type Schillings into Google. Would you hire them?

If you want good online advice about reputation management, you probably want to go to someone who's actually quite good. In fact, you might want to go to one of the best search optimisation practitioners operating in the UK. Good idea when working on that sort of thing for a different client? Don't piss him off, ask Anne Milton...

ETA: liadnan in the comments here makes a very good, and informed point, from the perspective of a practicing barrister:

By and large the lawyer's (or at least the solicitor's -professional obligations are slightly different at the bar-) job is to advise -within the law- on possible courses of action which may achieve the client's wishes, and then, once the client has decided, carry out the chosen course, not to make decisions for their client based on their own political, social, or moral beliefs about what the law should be.

He's right, of course, the law firm itself can't be blamed specifically for acting on behalf of their client, but then, I've always known I'd make a terrible lawyer...