The Heather Mills and Paul McCartney divorce saga is a journalist’s dream, which of course means that the potential for a PR disaster is huge. But while the risks to the reputations – and media profiles – of the two protagonists are obvious, the concern for Mills’ legal team is intrinsically linked and just as worrisome.
The fact that it made headlines in the Daily Mail when Mishcon de Reya, Ms Mills’ law firm, hired its own PR firm to try to stop a series of leaks that had threatened to derail the multimillion-pound divorce claim shows just how important the media is now in litigation. Mills had already hired her own showbiz PR advisers, but they were replaced in litigation support by a team that Mishcons has used in the past, with partner and solicitor-advocate Anthony Julius apparently deciding that the coverage threatened not just the case, but also his reputation and that of his firm, in a market where discretion is paramount.
