BulletProofBlog the blog on crisis communications

After years of playing defense during the Bush Administration, the plaintiffs' bar is back on the attack. Empowered by the election of President Obama and Democratic gains in Congress, trial lawyers are poised to tap populist furor - and the media' s passion for it - to pass legislation that will likely reshape civil litigation for years to come.

And as if that weren' t enough to keep general counsels in the financial, insurance, healthcare, and other industries up at night, the plaintiffs' bar is also making the most a valuable tool that it mastered during its years of Capitol Hill exile - the Internet. Since the turn of the century, tools within the digital space have enabled pro-litigation interest groups to harness and focus public sentiment on specific concerns related to big dollar cases. Almost ten years later, most companies still remain a full Internet generation behind those that target them when it comes to protecting against reputation-damaging litigation.

For Corporate America to compete on this new (and uneven) playing field, there is an immediate need to come to terms with emerging realities in the new Era of Accountability. With each new instance of perceived corporate irresponsibility, Congress will be rearmed with messages that back its litigation reform preogatives - making it more important than ever for companies to control the narrative should crisis strike.

With more than three-quarters of traditional journalists watching the digital space for story ideas, controlling the narrative means it' s time for companies to finally begin competing with the plaintiffs' bar for online dominance.

That means it' s time for companies to anticipate exposures and optimize their Web efforts for maximum search engine placement should any of them come to fruition.

It means identifying and tracking the high-authority bloggers in specific industry sectors to gain vital intelligence into where the plaintiffs' bar may be going next.

It means treating those bloggers like the traditional journalists who pattern their commentary based on what the bloggers write.

It means creating your own corporate blog and implementing Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook strategies to avoiding ceding control of your brand to the online denizens.

And most important, it means becoming agile enough to respond to online attacks in real time. The plaintiffs' bar knows that speed wins in cyberspace - and it' s counting on companies to respond slowly to messages that not only further its agenda, but influence members of Congress as well.