The glare of publicity in notorious cases is here to stay - and solicitors must learn to use it to their clients' advantage, writes Sue Stapely

All charges against television presenter John Leslie have been dropped.

He walked from court a free man, according to the Crown Prosecution Service 'without a stain on his character' and free to start to rebuild his life.

Yet Leslie has been convicted and his life has been ruined.

Not by the legal system, but by the media.

And it is now for the media to decide whether he will ever have a worthwhile career again.

While the public has a much more sophisticated understanding of the legal process and the part that lawyers play - at least as far as litigation goes - it seems the appetite with which untested allegations are devoured - and, apparently, believed - continues.

The British particularly seem to delight in those in privileged positions finding themselves in uncomfortable situations.

But it is not just celebrities who suffer this scrutiny.

Ordinary people have the minutiae of their lives dissected when they come into contact with the law and the media is alerted.

Tony Martin was scooped up from prison by the Daily Mirror and poured into a limo with a young woman journalist.

The next day he found his most private thoughts on the front page of that paper.

Sally Clark, a solicitor, was wrongfully imprisoned for more than three years and separated from her lawyer husband and their surviving son, partially because she was portrayed in the media as the sort of person who could conceivably murder her two babies.

The Daily Mirror's editor reported with glee the increase in circulation after he bought the story of the Royal butler, Paul Burrell, after his trial collapsed.

Police investigations, searches for missing people and hostage situations are conducted in front of cameras and searchlights, with the police harnessing the media to support their work.

A common tactic before making allegations to the police is for the complainant to engage a publicist to assess the story's media value.

While submissions are now made to demonstrate that fair trials are impossible because of prejudicial media coverage, this is last-ditch stuff.

The damage is done and the perceptions formed.

So is all lost? Far from it.

Properly managed media communications can shift dramatically the perception of an individual or an organisation.

The British Medical Journal reported that Sally Clark had changed from being a 'bte noire' to being a 'cause clbre', after intensive activity to educate, inform and actively manage the media coverage of her case.

Some newspapers, at first vitriolic in their criticism of her, had the temerity to claim on her release in January that they had campaigned for it and knew all along she was innocent.

Sophisticated companies facing major litigation or media scrutiny now engage communications professionals to work alongside their lawyers to undertake rigorous reputational risk assessments, and to put in place defensive strategies.

Clever law firms are learning that part of the service they should offer is support on managing the communications of their matter to the audiences potentially affected and influenced.

A few lawyers have acquired considerable media handling skills; others work with professionals experienced in news management and familiar with the complexities of the legal process.

Ignoring the importance of that dimension could one day become the basis of an accusation of professional negligence.

Solicitor Sue Stapely is a consultant in communications and author of Media Relations for Lawyers, published this month by Law Society Publishing