A few suggested updates for Shillings' website

Schillings, the law firm responsible for making sure damaging allegations about its client, Alisher Usmanov, have now been plastered all over the blogosphere and the mainstream media, has a page on its website entitled what they say about us.

It contains glowing commendations from various sources. After this week's debacle, it may need to be updated.

Here are some suggestions, all taken from blogs and comments on blogs:

They are, frankly, bullies.

They appear to have displayed utter incompetence with their counterproductive shyster threats

Your current methods have actually given [your client's critic] a much wider audience for his allegations that he can possibly have dreamed of.

Trying to take the internet on with legal threats is amusingly futile.

Schillings look dodgy, an outfit billing the dodgiest

******

At the beginning of the week, these allegations were familiar only with a few people who were either keen Arsenal fans, or regular visitors to Craig Murray's blog. I certainly hadn't heard anything about them. By the end of the week, anybody who pays attention to British politics was aware of them.

Here's a new proposal for a case study for Schillings' prospectus:

The problem
Our client was a lardy foreign oligarch looking to take over a leading British football club. The former British Ambassador to his country had published allegations about him which he considered to be false and defamatory.

The solution
We put the frighteners on the former Ambassador's webhost to such an extent that it shut down not only his blog, but also other high profile blogs which had nothing to do with it, including that of the Conservative candidate for London mayor, and others in elected office. The allegations then spread around the internet and the mainstream media like wildfire.
*****


In all seriousness, in the internet age, law firms specialising in public relations cannot afford any hint of incompetence. Blogging has led to a a gigantic democratisation of the media.

It is inconceivable that, if somebody had a grievance against a newspaper or magazine, that they would get it shut down. Other measures would be persued first. It might be easier to pick on bloggers - but be prepared for the fallout.

And the fallout for Schillings will be substantial. They have created a story and reluctantly become part of it. If a businessman or celebrity is looking to instruct Schillings in future, and types its name into google, they will find hundreds of blog articles about its handling of this affair. It might be enough to convince them to instruct somebody else.

I imagine Schillings' partners will be holding an emergency meeting to review their strategy in light of a civil society which holds not only public figures, but also their law and PR firms to account for their actions.

Other law firms will be watching with interest and relief that it was not them who made the blunder. A lot of lessons will be learned from this.