Contract Considerations

A contract is a legal agreement that contains three elements: offer and acceptance, time, and consideration — in the simplest terms, this means that it states what will be done, when it will be done, and how much will be paid. If any of these elements is missing, no contract exists. Contracts can be verbal, but it is much safer to put them in writing. You may need to make contracts with clients, freelancers, and various facilities.

 

Client Contracts

If you are working for or with a public relations firm, it is important that a contract or letter of agreement be signed. This is a good idea at two levels of the process.

The first level is the request by the client for a proposal of ideas from the public relations firm. Public relations firms often complain that prospective clients go fishing for ideas and then implement the best ones without retaining the firms that suggested them. To preclude this, a firm should draw up a letter of agreement in which the prospective client promises not to use any of the ideas presented without payment. Recognize, however, that ideas must be truly novel or original to warrant such protec­tion.

The second level is when the public relations firm actually begins working for the client. A contract or letter of agreement should spell out exactly what is to be done, in what time period, and for what amount of money.

If you are charging the client for mileage or working by the hour, this should be specified. If you are charging by the job, say, for writing a news release, make sure that you specify a fee that will cover your time and energy for several rewrites. A thorough discussion of billing procedures and fees at the beginning of a client relationship will save much agony and recrimination later.

 

Freelancer Contracts

More and more companies are relying on temporary help to balance their work­load. If 20 hours' work a week is needed on an account, it is more cost-effective to use a freelancer for 20 hours a week than to hire a full-time employee who is busy only half the time. The drawback is that some firms use temporary help to get around laws and regulations that apply to employees. The firm may save money, but the "temporaries" are denied regular employee benefits.

Generally, a freelancer is not expected to conform to the rules governing regular employees. A freelancer is an independent contractor. Among the matters covered in the freelancer's contract should be ownership of work produced by the freelancer, maintenance of confidentiality, terms of payment. The job should be paid per unit or item produced, not per hour worked. Also, it is customary to bar the freelancer from being employed directly by the client but not by a competing agency.

 

Facilities Contracts

Meetings, conventions, meals, and outdoor activities are typical occasions where you will need to negotiate a contract with a restaurant, caterer, or hotel. For your own financial safety, any contract should be written so that you thoroughly understand basic costs as well as add-on costs.

For example, a restaurant may quote you $25 per person for a meal but neglect to tell you that this does not include taxes and a gratuity for staff. On top of this, you may even find yourself paying a basic rental charge for the banquet room if this isn't clarified in your negotiations.

In sum, know exactly what you want and how much the restaurant or hotel will charge. Ask a lot of questions, and get all price quotations in writing.

 

Working with Lawyers

You now have an overview of how various laws and governmental regulations affect your work as a public relations writer and specialist. A basic knowledge of the law should help you do your work in a responsible and appropriate manner, but you also should realize that a smattering of knowledge can be dangerous.

Laws and regulations can be complex. You are not a trained attorney, so it should be obvious that you should consult lawyers who are qualified to answer specialized questions regarding libel, copyright, trademarks, government regulation, and invasion of privacy.

Your organization's own staff attorneys or outside legal counselors are your first source of information.

At the same time, remember that lawyers can tell you what to do or not to do; they should not tell you what to say or how to say it. They are experts on the law but not on effective communication. They don't understand that the media want information now or that "no comment" is perceived as a guilty plea in the court of public opinion.

Indeed, a major area of fiction in any organization is the clash between the legal and public relations departments. Lawyers generally prefer to say little or nothing in most situations, whereas the public relations staff perceives its role as providing a steady flow of information and news about the organization to multiple publics. It is a never-ending tug-of-war. At the same time, it is essential that the legal and public relations staffs cooperate in the best interests of the organization.

Great care must be taken in releasing information about litigation, labour negoti­ations, complex financial transactions, product recalls, and plant accidents. Numerous laws and regulations, to say nothing of liability considerations, affect what should or should not be said.

It is often important to draft a proposed statement or release and submit it to legal counsel for approval. The release should give as much information as possible and be phrased clearly and concisely. The object in such a release is to convince the public that the organization is not hiding behind legal technicalities but, at the same time, must protect itself from possible lawsuits and litigation.

Your relations with legal counsel will be more pleasant and more productive if you keep abreast of new developments. To do this, you should maintain a file of newspaper and magazine articles that report on legal developments and decisions relating to public relations. This might include new regulatory guidelines, consent decrees, libel awards, trademark infringement suit, product recalls, and court decisions on employee privacy.

 

To ensure the best cooperation and mutual respect between the legal and public relations functions, here are some guidelines:

• Each department should have a written definition of its responsibilities.

• The heads of both departments should be equal in rank and report to the organization's chief executive officer or executive vice-president.

• Both departments should be represented on key committees.

• The legal counsel should keep the public relations staff up to date on legal problems involving the organization.

• The public relations staff should keep the legal staff up to date on public issues and media concerns that will require an organizational response.

• The two sides should regard each other as allies, not opponents.