The Newest Discipline: Managing Legally Driven Issues: Providing Public Affairs Advice in the Lawyer-Dominated Problem Environment (Monograph)

"The public affairs process is charmingly intuitive and delightfully broad ranging in its acceptance of plausible potential scenarios. The lawyer is far more focused, far less inclined to speculate, and often antagonistic to the idea of extensive public communication preparation." James E. Lukaszewski. Growing worldwide legal threats to business organizations require that management consultants, but especially public affairs and issues management managers, develop a substantial knowledge of the law, lawyers, the environment of legal risk and how to apply this knowledge strategically and tactically. One of the most interesting aspects of this new environment of laws and litigation is learning just how useful, systematic, and common sensical the law really is. From the public affairs perspective, the legal issues of a business organization fall into four general categories: legal management, litigation, lobbying, and negotiation/conciliation (generally for the purpose of avoiding or shortening litigation). There are basically two kinds of litigation: civil and criminal. In civil litigation, the individual or organization that sues is called the plaintiff. The action is usually for money, but can also be for a variety of other claims involving injury or damages such as libel, loss of entitlements, loss of property, or to enforce a contract. The individual or organization being sued is the defendant.