Waking watch

Ellisons Solicitors

| Media relations

1.

Brief

Raise awareness of the success of Ellisons Solicitors regionally, within Essex and Suffolk, following a successful case win.

2.

What Pier did

Quickly understood a complicated case ruling, breaking it down to ensure it was easily communicated via the media. Assets and information were gathered before a strong media relations campaign was delivered.

3.

Impact

The biggest audience reach and coverage of a single press release in Ellisons Solicitors’ history – hitting online, print and broadcast media simultaneously.

Overview

Residents of Morello Quarter were told that they had to install a waking watch at their development which would cost them £13,000 a week. A waking watch is to ensure residents have enough time for evacuation in the case of a fire in the building. The residents were only given 30 days to raise this money and so they asked Ellisons Solicitors to challenge the waking watch ruling.

Story

The judge agreed that the residents could not be expected to raise that amount of money in such a short space of time and so ruled in their favour granting them six months to raise the funds. This amount of time meant that the waking watch would no longer be needed as a fire alarm could be installed offering a much more cost effective solution.

Ellisons Solicitors had just 48 hours to challenge the ruling. Their successful appeal was quickly identified as a first-of-its-kind victory and meant it would make a great story for the press. The challenge was to break down a very complicated legal case into easily understandable and newsworthy information.

Working closely with Ellisons’ Partner Ian Seeley to dissect the story, we quickly worked to understand the case and the ruling. We also interviewed residents at Morello Quarter to gather all information about the appeal and its impact. This was drafted into a hard hitting press release including expert commentary from Ian Seeley and residents’ quotes. it was a powerful and impactful piece which highlighted the importance of the appeal to the wider public.

We also secured additional assets to pitch to media alongside the release including the judge’s official ruling, imagery of Morello Quarter, Ian Seeley, and residents who were also willing to speak about the human impact of the case.

This package was communicated to all media contacts in Essex and Suffolk and we quickly built up substantial interest in the story which led to coverage landing online, in print and via broadcast

It was an unprecedented response to what was a first-of-its-kind victory for solicitors and flat leaseholders in the UK.

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Waking watch application

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