Capturing the headlines - Grahame Stowe Bateson

Remit

Grahame Stowe Bateston is one of the North of England's leading criminal law firms, led by high-profile solicitor Grahame Stowe. Having commissioned Quest PR to raise his profile in the broadcast media on a project basis in 2002, Grahame Stowe returned to Quest PR in November 2007 when the business was undergoing a formative period of expansion.

Since then the Quest team has we have handled high-profile cases of global interest while securing a wide range of authoritative comment opportunities in heavyweight media including The Times, Reuters and the BBC's Daily Politics.

Key Objectives

• To position Grahame Stowe as a leading criminal lawyer
• To secure comment opportunities in national and regional media on criminal law issues
• To handle media interest in major cases and prevent negative coverage
• To operate a 24-hour press office function to respond to journalist enquiries

Planning and implementation

Quest hit the ground running. During our first meeting Grahame was called to represent a terrorist suspect who had been accused of serious crimes under the Official Secrets Act. Such charges are rarely brought against people since the end of the ‘Cold War'.

The Quest team rallied into action for a case which would inevitably attract scrutiny and controversy from regional, national and international media.

Our understanding of the background, the events leading up to the arrest and the process for charging and for court appearances - was vital. Detailed research on the individual, who had aspired to be a local councilor, and who had a presence on social networking sites and in news stories - was key to anticipating and planning the handling of potential issues.  

Taking the above factors into account, along with the highly sensitive nature of the case, Quest earmarked the Yorkshire Post - with which it has a close relationship - to break the story. As an agency comprising former national and regional print and broadcast journalists, we knew the story would be syndicated UK-wide, leading to further enquiries.

We ensured a robust database of key journalists was in place and issued a back-up statement to the Press Association. The story broke on a Saturday, leading to a slew of enquiries handled via the Quest team who set up interviews with Grahame. The Sunday Telegraph and Mail on Sunday carried leaders on the case. A media call was issued on the same day to regional, national, wire and broadcast media in advance of Monday morning's court appearance.

Quest managed all media for the court appearance and continued ongoing briefings to press. When the accused was bailed, Quest briefed his mother and Grahame about how to handle media interviews and journalists' intrusion.

As the case developed over subsequent months, the Quest team kept the media up to date with events and continued issuing statements from Grahame to explain the outcome. The Quest team's thorough briefings were instrumental in developing media trust, generating significant ‘buy-in'.

When all charges were dropped, Quest began a round-up of stories with journalists to enable the accused, accompanied by Grahame, to air his views.

Results

The press coverage achieved over 620 mentions of the case on Google - over 60 of which highlight Grahame Stowe's involvement. The majority of references also include quotes from the lawyer. In addition, Grahame featured regularly on BBC Look North and ITV Calendar News - as well as featuring on CNN and Yorkshire and Lancashire radio.

Not one single piece of coverage presented Grahame in a negative light.

The Quest team also built up strong relationships between Grahame Stowe and regional and national journalists - relationships that had previously been confined to the local Leeds paper and radio prior to Quest PR's involvement.

As a result, Grahame Stowe is acknowledged as one the city's, and country's key criminal lawyers and is a regular commentator on Sky and BBC on matters concerning prison population, violent crime and criminal law.

"Quest's ability to dig out a story, react to it and position me as an intelligent, insightful and witty commentator on criminal issues is boundless. In the time they have worked with me, my profiling has been transformed and am now regularly seen by my peers, colleagues and clients on national and regional television, heard on local radio and read about across local, regional and national newspapers.

"Intelligent and media-savvy Quest are a pleasure to work with and have transformed perceptions of my company."
Grahame Stowe