jhaggerty@prcg.com 212.683.8100

• INTRODUCTION

  James F. Haggerty, President and CEO of PRCG | Haggerty LLC, is an attorney, author and communications consultant with more than twenty-five years of experience counseling corporate, nonprofit and individual clients. With areas of expertise ranging from real estate and construction, to financial and wealth management, to healthcare and environment/sustainability matters, to sports & media, Jim is frequently called upon as a trusted advisor in all manner of sensitive domestic and international issues.

  Jim and his firm have worked for more than two decades with leading financial and professional service firms, including banks, wealth management advisors, private equity firms, hedge funds, law firms and similar businesses. In sports-related fields, he works for individuals, team owners and brands in a range of sports-related matters, including on behalf of large retailers, apparel and footwear companies and others. Jim has also been involved with communications response to NCAA investigations and other sensitive, legal-related issues. He has also been a advisor to clients on environmental and sustainability issues for more than 20 years, working with some of the leading environmental groups in the United States, as well as public interest lawyers and companies in the recycling and renewable energy fields.

  In the area of high-profile litigation, crisis matters and sensitive reputation management, Jim is considered one of the nation’s foremost experts. He has been repeatedly named by Chambers & Partners, the prestigious international directory, as  one of the top communications professionals in the United States, a “powerhouse” who “thinks on a different level,” bringing a “double barrel of legal and media experience” to his work. PR News also named Jim to its list of “50 Game Changers” for his work as a “trailblazer” in litigation communications, and the firm has been lauded for providing “sophisticated” “round-the-clock” global services to clients in crisis and litigation matters.

  As a litigation communications consultant, Jim’s experience includes working for Native Americans in the largest class action lawsuit ever filed against the United States government, representing a New Jersey grandmother in the largest single-family Holocaust restitution claim in history, environmental cases on behalf of plaintiffs poisoned by the spread of toxic chemicals, and working with a minority-owned bank that was unfairly targeted with mortgage fraud allegations by the New York District Attorney.

  As an attorney, Jim represented more than 3,000 victims of the Haitian cholera disaster in a lawsuit against the United Nations that reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 2019. He has also worked on First Amendment issues, false advertising cases and other matters.

• EXPERIENCE

  Jim is a go-to counselor to clients facing challenging and complex communications issues.

  Jim began his career working commercial and industrial development projects for the City of New York, including the MetroTech Center in downtown Brooklyn and the industrial redevelopment of the historic Brooklyn Army Terminal. Before that, he was a Special Assistant to U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Since becoming a consultant, Jim has counseled on numerous crisis matters and legal disputes, including the some of the largest criminal, product liability, intellectual property, antitrust and employment cases in history. He has also worked on numerous matters in the U.S. and globally involving accidents and events, protests, international fraud, insider trading, sexual harassment and workplace violence.

• BOOKS & AWARDS

  Jim is the author of several books on the interplay of legal, crisis communications matters and public perception. His landmark 2003 book, In the Court of Public Opinion: Winning Strategies for Litigation Communications has just been released in an updated Third Edition by ABA Publishing. First published in 2003, In The Court of Public Opinion is considered the leading book in the field. It has been called “the perfect handbook for this age of show trials” by Financial Times and has been featured in prominent business and trade media around the world.  Jim’s second book, Chief Crisis Officer: Structure and Leadership for Effective Communications Response (ABA Publishing), was first published in 2017 and has just been released in paperback with a new Introduction. Chief Crisis Officer has been positively featured in the Harvard Business Review, Fortune and Entrepreneur magazine, among others. As a writer, Jim was also a columnist for American Lawyer’s Corporate Counsel magazine from 2011 – 2015, where he was twice named a finalist for the prestigious Neal Award for Business Journalism — the only full-time public relations professional ever to be so honored.

  Jim holds a B.A. from Binghamton University and attended the Fordham University and Stetson University law schools (JD). He is admitted to practice law in New York and Florida, and before various federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court. He spent a decade as a Trustee of NY/NJ Baykeeper, an environmental organization, and is currently a board member of the Heart Disease Research Foundation (HRDF).