TO: Arizona Supreme Court
FROM: Mark Weaver
DATE: December, 2023
RE: Crisis Communications and Social Media Training

WHO WE ARE

Communications Counsel is a strong team of six communications professionals. Our bios are here. Your primary advisors for this project would be Mark Weaver and Ryan Stubenrauch (both attorneys). We’ve helped hundreds of clients over the years. A representative sample is here. We have a great deal of experience in social media for government, having advised many cities and counties around the country. Mark Weaver has been a keynote speaker at the Government Social Media Conference (GSMCON), a national event for government social media practitioners.

Our greatest expertise is helping clients navigate the treacherous intersection of law, government, media, crisis, and public opinion. We regularly work alongside attorneys and judges who appreciate the strategies and tactics we offer when winning in the court of public opinion is just as important as winning in a court of law.

We have significant experience advising judges, including presentations to the Ohio judiciary, the Michigan judiciary, and the New Hampshire judiciary. Mark has also presented previously to the Arizona Supreme Court. Since 1990, Mark Weaver has advised numerous state supreme court justices, federal judges, as well as trial and appeals court judges. Mr. Weaver also serves as Acting Judge in a trial-level court, and both Mr. Weaver and Mr. Stubenrauch served as part-time magistrates in a local court.

SERVICES

Based on our discussion with court officials, we understand this project to be a mixture of crisis communications as well as social media and First Amendment training and consulting. We expect this work will take place over several months after the contract signing. 

During the engagement, we recommend the following agreed-upon deliverables:  

1.    Confer closely with court leadership to understand and refine the goals and objectives of our work.

2.    Over the course of a one-day on-site visit, conduct research for a full communications audit of every aspect and level of the judiciary as directed. Following that day, we will prepare an audit report for discussion at on subsequent online meeting.

3.    Draft a crisis communications plan that will help prepare the court for the most likely crisis scenarios. The plan will be structured in a way that court leadership can utilize and distribute it to lower courts as may be appropriate. The plan will also recommend best practices in light of the unique and limited ability of the judiciary to speak publicly coupled with some people online tendency to say terrible things online.

4.    Conduct an on-site crisis communications and First Amendment social media session for the court and any other members of the judiciary the court wants to include. This session will feature hands-on practice in responding to scenarios involving likely crises. This will be on-site for at least half a day.

5.    Following the crisis communications preparation discussed above and relying on the information from the communications audit, draft a pro-active press strategy that will allow the Supreme Court and any lower court to use it to communicate its work and mission in the most effective and ethical way possible. For the Supreme Court, this would include an organizational chart, job duties, op-ed possibilities, social media strategies, etc.

6.    Over an online meeting, present the communications plans and make adjustments and revisions as requested.

7.    Be available for calls, Zoom sessions, and meetings as agreed and necessary.

8.    Maintain confidentiality throughout the engagement.

9.    Following the work of this project, we will be familiar with the leaders and the court’s mission and will be on standby for crisis consulting work as needed.

FEES

While we are often hired on an hourly rate basis, those fees ($695 an hour for Mark Weaver and $435 an hour for other staff) are more suited to short-term, emergency assistance. We believe there’s a better framework for the Arizona Judiciary, but we’ve also provided options here so that you can make the judgment based on what you know of the expectations for this project.

OPTION A: Flat project rate (including all travel expenses such as mileage) to undertake the deliverables outlined above $18,500.

OPTION B: Hourly cost at $695/hr. for Mark Weaver and $435/hr. for other staff. Travel time billed at 50%. For the First Amendment social media training session, the cost would be $3,000. Travel expenses, such as mileage, would be billed at cost.

CONCLUSION

Even organizations with strong, ethical leaders and a laudable mission encounter crises. To the public and other stakeholders, the measure of such an organization is how well the leaders respond to, and communicate about a crisis. A serious misstep in crisis communications can cause serious damage to the credibility and reputation of the organization. This would be a particularly troubling outcome for a judiciary. 

Hamilton wrote in Federalist 78 that the courts have no sword (like the executive) and no purse (like the legislature) but only judgment. If the public were to doubt the judgment of court leaders responding to a crisis, the judiciary would be left defenseless. Our approach, as outlined in this proposal, is aimed at preventing such a disaster. We’re eager to get started.

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