Hart + Harvest Press Announces Upcoming Release of “Sports Crisis Communications: Cases and Controversy”

New anthology looks at recent high-profile crises and legal cases making news; Also includes interviews with leading sports commentators and executives

NEW YORK, March 31, 2025 — Hart + Harvest Press is pleased to announce the upcoming release of its latest book – Sports Crisis Communications: Cases and Controversy – co-authored by prominent sports and crisis communications experts Jim Rocco and Thom Weidlich.

The new book, scheduled for release on April 22, 2025, is a cutting-edge look at the importance of crisis communications planning and response in this age of media and social media saturation.

Sports Crisis Communications: Cases and Controversy is an anthology and analysis of high-profile sports crises involving professional, collegiate and high-school athletes, teams, leagues and brands taken from more than a decade of content and interviews developed by Rocco and Weidlich – both managing directors at PRCG | Haggerty LLC and its sports brand, PRCG | Sports. Among the many case histories are those involving Tom Brady, FIFA, the NFL, and many others, as well as penetrating interviews with prominent sports figures such as Bob Costas, Mary Carillo and Michele Tafoya.

By delving into the crises featured in Sports Crisis Communications: Cases and Controversy, the reader will become well-versed in crisis communications planning and response in the sports context. Absorbing the lessons in the book will put the reader ahead of the game in terms of dealing with negative situations that can destroy both reputations and revenue.

The book offers insightful answers to critical questions, including how brands can navigate a reputational crisis involving a sponsored athlete, how athletes can safeguard their image from scandal, and how teams can effectively communicate with fans during an emerging crisis.

“The role that sports play in our lives, and the passion they elicit, can’t be overestimated by any crisis communicator who may be dealing with a sports-related crisis,” co-author Jim Rocco said. “That passion that fans feel about the athletes and teams they support undeniably affects perception and should absolutely be taken into consideration when developing a comms strategy.”

“It’s fascinating how many crises crop up in sports and how varied they are,” co-author Thom Weidlich said. “It’s frustrating that sports organizations don’t take responding well to them more seriously. It’s our hope that, by doing a deep dive into sports crises of the past decade, readers will gain a solid grounding in how to do this.”

Uncorrected page proofs are available for review upon request.

About the Authors 

Jim Rocco has a broad background in sports marketing, branding, public relations and crisis communications. For more than 20 years he has worked within the sports and entertainment space and has previously held positions at HBO Sports and Barclays Center. In addition to managing new business initiatives, Jim serves as the host of the Crisis Communications in Sports podcast and frequently provides commentary on breaking sports crises.

After a long career in journalism, Thom Weidlich now specializes in crisis management, media relations and legal communications. The former Bloomberg reporter was a journalist for more than 20 years, including at the National Law Journal and PRWeek. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, the ABA Journal and many other publications.

New White Paper, ‘Navigating Reputational Harm’ by Eric W. Rose and James F. Haggerty Analyzes Managing Reputational Issues in the Digital Age

Hart + Harvest Press is pleased to announce the release of the first in our Media Monograph series.

Attorney James F. Haggerty and Eric W. Rose, a nationally known expert on reputational damages, are pleased to announce the publication of a new white paper, “Navigating Reputational Harm: A Deep Dive into Repairing, Measuring, Metrics, and Legal Implications of Reputational Harm in the Internet Age,“ published by Hart + Harvest Press.

With a rise in false and defamatory content due to social media and the internet, managing a reputation has become increasingly difficult, presenting challenges to the traditional reputational response methods. This white paper features a comprehensive analysis on how to handle the growing challenges of repairing reputational damage in a media-driven era.

Haggerty and Rose provide a guide on the best practices moving forward to help properly handle a reputational crisis online, along with addressing the more prominent role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in perpetuating reputational harm.

“Simply put,” the authors, write, “in today’s world, everyone is a publisher, everyone has an opinion, this opinionated “news” can be transmitted globally with the touch of a button, and we all have actual malice toward each other — or, at least, toward anyone with an opposing or adversarial viewpoint.”

Haggerty and Rose add that “the difference between fact and opinion, which has traditionally been critical to defamation cases, has also blurred. Indeed, this brave new world has changed, and will further change, the framework and cost-benefit analysis surrounding modern defamation law. This will likely result in more defamation suits and greater damages, both in the United States and in other jurisdictions.”

A guide for public relations professionals, organizations, and legal professionals dealing with reputation issues online, Navigating Reputational Harm outlines various tools and techniques for addressing reputational damage, including social media monitoring platforms and sentiment analysis tools.

This white paper is available for download on the websites of EKA PR and PRCG | Haggerty, and here.

About The Authors

James F. Haggerty, CEO of PRCG | Haggerty LLC, is an attorney, author, and communications consultant with more than 30 years of experience advising corporate, nonprofit, and individual clients. Business Insider recently named Jim as one of the “18 top public-relations experts CEOs scramble to hire in a crisis.” He has also been repeatedly ranked as one of the top legal communications professionals in the United States by Chambers and Partners, the international legal directory, and in 2017 was named one of 50 “Game-Changers of PR” by PR News for his work in litigation-related communications. Jim is also President of Reputation Advisors International, a network of senior communications professionals in 16 cities across the globe.

Jim’s influential first book, In The Court of Public Opinion: Winning Strategies for Litigation Communications, has been called “…the perfect handbook for this age” by the Financial Times and remains a definitive exploration of public relations in legal disputes. In the Court of Public Opinion is now in its Third Edition, published by Hart + Harvest Press (2022). Jim’s second book, Chief Crisis Officer: Structure and Leadership for Effective Communications Response, was the best-selling public relations hardcover of 2017 and was recently released in paperback by Hart + Harvest Press, with a new Preface by the author. Chief Crisis Officer has received recognition in the Harvard Business Review, Entrepreneur, and Fortune magazines, among others. Jim was also a columnist for American Lawyer’s Corporate Counsel magazine from 2011 to 2015.

Jim is admitted to practice law in New York and Florida. As an attorney, his legal work spans diverse areas, including reputation matters, First Amendment issues, and false advertising cases. Jim was also lead counsel on behalf of more than 3,000 victims of the Haitian Cholera disaster, in a case against the United Nations that reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 2019.

Eric W. Rose is a veteran executive in public relations, marketing, and communications with over 35 years of experience. He is a partner at EKA in Los Angeles, specializing in guiding clients through complex corporate reputation challenges and has assisted clients in navigating crises stemming from natural and human-made disasters, labor disputes, product recalls, layoffs, and plant closures.

Eric has distinguished himself in litigation, crisis communications, reputation management, image repair, and counseling. Eric has created public relations and marketing/communications programs for the legal profession and has provided litigation support throughout the United States. Eric has served as an expert information source and analyst for the mass media on crisis communications, image repair, and reputation management issues.

He is a respected court-qualified expert witness and has testified on matters relating to crisis communications, defamation, damaged image, reputation prevention, and the costs of implementing repair programs. He has provided expert testimony nationally on the costs and measures required to restore reputations. Eric has also been a rebuttal expert witness and excels in reputational repair and identifying and mitigating social media vulnerabilities.

Eric excels at distilling intricate legal matters into digestible, clear, and impactful narratives tailored to specific audiences. He also specializes in crafting communication strategies designed to navigate the litigation processes. His track record includes shaping narratives in high-profile cases, anticipating potential case outcomes, and effectively influencing key stakeholders to cultivate an environment conducive to the client’s objectives.

Media Contact
PRCG | Haggerty LLC
Sandra Prendergast
(212) 683-8100
sprendergast@prcg.com

Hart + Harvest Releases New Edition of Chief Crisis Officer: Structure and Leadership for Effective Communications Response

Hart + Harvest Press is thrilled to release the latest edition of Chief Crisis Officer: Structure and Leadership for Effective Communications Response, by noted attorney, author and communications consultant James F. Haggerty. The new edition is now available for purchase on platforms such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, independent booksellers, and at hartandharvest.com.

The Hart + Harvest edition of Chief Crisis Officer features a new preface that provocatively looks at the communication impacts of two of the most dominant crisis events of the past several years: the COVID-19 pandemic, and Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

On the COVID crisis, Haggerty writes that the government’s disastrous public response “serves as a prime example of why basic principles of crisis communications are so critical, including: having structure and leadership in place for response before a crisis occurs; ensuring an actionable plan that everyone understands and buys into; understanding the importance of rapid response protocols in an age of social media and other instant communications; and creating messages that are compelling and clear… messages that resonate with your audience.”

On the subject of messaging, Haggerty contrasts the COVID failures with the success of President Volodymyr Zelensky in the wake of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

“As in the public speeches of Churchill, Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan,” Haggerty writes, “Zelensky chose his words and images incredibly carefully, rallying the Western world to a cause thought hopeless in the early days of the conflict.”

Haggerty adds: “There was no committee noodling his words on Google Docs, adding various equivocations and lawyerly qualifications. No banal clichés. None of the muddied verbiage of the type that ensures that the bulk of your audience doesn’t hear your message at all.”

Structure and Leadership

In Chief Crisis Officer, Haggerty emphasizes the necessity for all organizations, regardless of size, to (1) have the structure in place for effective communications response, and (2) appoint a leader who can execute in the heat of the modern crisis—the “Chief Crisis Officer.”

“Crisis communications planning is not merely for the largest of companies facing the biggest of issues in the most major of media outlets,” Haggerty writes. “Effective crisis communications is for everyone involved with issues or events that could negatively impact their organization.”

Throughout the book, readers will gain insights into crisis management, including the anatomy of a crisis, the selection of a Chief Crisis Officer, the creation of a crisis communications plan, rapid response strategies, crafting the right messages, and more. Since its original release, Chief Crisis Officer has become mandatory reading for CEOs, business executives, lawyers, public affairs and public relations executives, and high-profile individuals who seek guidance in crisis management.

Prior editions of Chief Crisis Officer have been positively featured in publications that include the Harvard Business Review, Fortune and Entrepreneur magazines.

About James F. Haggerty

Called a “powerhouse of PR and communications” by Chambers & Partners’ international directory, James F. Haggerty is a well-known author, attorney and communications consultant. Haggerty is CEO of PRCG | Haggerty LLC, an internationally renowned public relations firm based in New York City, and its sports brand, PRCG | Sports. He is also president of the Crisis Protection Network (CPN), an association of senior communications executives in 16 cities worldwide.

Haggerty is also the author of In the Court of Public Opinion: Winning Strategies for Litigation Communications, Third Edition (Hart + Harvest Press, 2022), which has been called to as “the perfect handbook for this age of show trials…” by Financial Times. The first business book to examine the interplay of media, public relations, and public perception during litigation, In the Court of Public Opinion was named one of the Top 10 PR Books of the Year by The Holmes Report.  A 20^th anniversary edition will be published in 2023.

Sports Crisis Communications: Cases and Controversy to be published by Hart + Harvest Press in Spring 2025

Hart + Harvest Press is pleased to announce that it will publish a new book, Sports Crisis Communications: Cases and Controversy, in Spring 2024. Sports Crisis Communications is the first book of its kind on the market specifically targeted to the challenges and idiosyncrasies of sports crisis communications.

Sports Crisis Communications: Cases and Controversy is an anthology and analysis of the best coverage from PRCG | Sports “Knowledge Exchange” blog—including Tom Brady’s “Deflategate” crisis, NFL crises like the Washington Commanders discrimination and name change issues, the U.S. Women Soccer team pay equity litigation, NCAA investigations and Name, Image and Likeness crisis, and many, many more. The new book also features an overview of crisis communications for sports brands, teams and athletes, as well as interviews with top sports opinion leaders and communicators, drawn from PRCG’s Crisis Communications in Sports podcast.

Sports Crisis Communications: Cases and Controversy is no stodgy treatise. It is drawn from the day-to-day work of one of the premier sports public relations firms in the nation. Writers include Jim Rocco, Managing Director of PRCG | Sports (and formerly of HBO Sports), and Thom Weidlich, editor of PRCG’s Knowledge Exchange and a former reporter for Bloomberg News and the National Law Journal, among others.

Sports Crisis Communications: Cases and Controversy will have a list price of $29.95 for the hardcover edition, and $14.99 in e-book format.

For more information, contact sales@hartandharvest.com.

20th Anniversary Edition of Hart + Harvest’s In The Court of Public Opinion planned for WInter 2023

The landmark communications book that took the legal and media worlds by storm in 2003 will celebrate its 20^thanniversary with a completely updated new edition in Winter, 2023!

In the Court of Public Opinion: Winning Strategies for Litigation Communications was the first book of its kind: a practical guide to the intersection (some call it “collision”) of law, media and public relations in an era of 24-hour news, the internet, social media and televised trials. Financial Times has called In the Court of Public Opinion “the perfect handbook for this age…” while the book was also prominently feature in media across the world, including The Wall Street Journal, CNN, CNBC, Inc., the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, ABA Journal, the National Law Journal, American Lawyer, the New York Law Journal, and many, many more.

In the Court of Public Opinion was cited in court opinions, textbooks and law review articles, used in universities and law school classrooms, spawned more than a few imitators and otherwise helped ease the acceptance of modern communications as a legitimate tool in a litigator’s arsenal.

The new edition of In the Court of Public Opinion will look at all of the high-profile cases that have dominated both traditional media and social media over the past several years, including the Amber Heard/Johnny Depp litigation, Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby and other #MeToo civil and criminal cases, antitrust battles such as the Simon & Shuster/Penguin Random house fight, as well as sports cases such as the NCAA Name Image & Likeness litigation that went all the way the U.S. Supreme Court and changed college sports forever.

As in prior editions, author James F. Haggerty will also give real-life examples from the many cases he’s been involved with, including significant environmental, criminal fraud and sports-related cases across the globe. Haggerty, an attorney, writer and communications consultants, is considered one of the top litigation communications consultants in the world. The prestigious Chambers & Partners international directory has repeatedly ranked Haggerty and his firm as one of the top public relations consultants in the United States, a “powerhouse” who “thinks on a different level,” bringing a “double barrel of legal and media experience” to his work.” The Washington Post has called Haggerty “an expert in PR strategies in high-profile court cases,” while a prominent PR trade publication notes he “literally wrote the book on Litigation PR.” In 2017, PR News named him to its list of “50 Game Changers of PR” for his work as a “trailblazer” in litigation communications, and The New York Times has noted that Haggerty’s firm provides “sophisticated” “round-the-clock” global services to clients in crisis and litigation matters.

An attorney admitted in New York and Florida, Haggerty was a columnist for American Lawyer’s Corporate Counsel magazine from 2011 to 2015, where he was twice named a finalist for the prestigious Neal Award for Business Journalism—often called “the Pulitzer Prize for business-to-business journalism—the only full-time public relations professional ever to be so honored.

The 20^th Anniversary Edition of In the Court of Public Opinion: Winning Strategies for Litigation Communications will have a list price of $29.95 for the hardcover edition, and $14.99 in e-book format. For more information, contact sales@hartandharvest.com.

Hart + Harvest Author Named President of International Crisis Communications Network

Hart + Harvest author James F. (“Jim”) Haggerty has been elected unanimously as President of The Crisis Protection Network (CPN), an exclusive association of crisis management professionals from more than a dozen cities around the world who share a commitment to excellence in crisis management and brand protection.

Haggerty is the author of In the Court of Public Opinion: Winning Strategies for Litigation Communications (3^rd Edition, Hart + Harvest Press, 2019), which Financial Times has called “the perfect handbook for this age of show trials.”  Since its original publication in 2003, In the Court of Public Opinion has been universally acclaimed as the leading book of effective communications response during litigation and other legal crises. Jim is also the author of Chief Crisis Officer: Structure and Leadership for Effective Communications Response (ABA Books, 2019) – with a new edition scheduled for 2023 covering the COVID-19 crisis and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Chief Crisis Officer has been featured in the Harvard Business Review, Fortune and Entrepreneur magazines, among others.

Organized under Swiss law, the Crisis Protection Network offers a range of reputation management services, planning, training and education. Members exchange business and best practices from locations aorund the globe.

In addition to PRCG locations New York, Washington DC and Los Angeles, the Crisis Protection Network currently has members in Amsterdam, Atlanta, Beijing, Chiasso, Hong Kong, London, Munich, Oslo, Paris, Singapore, Toronto and Zurich. Comprehensive services are offered in three main categories – Advisory Services, Intelligence & Research and Training & Education.

An attorney, consultant and author based in New York, Haggerty has been called “a powerhouse” of strategic communications by the prestigious international directory Chambers & Partners.