Actual crisis strategies most always deviate from plans, but a plan helps a company roll with the inevitable punches. Lawyers should be involved with the development of a crisis communications plan. However, remember that although a company must win in the courtroom, it must also win in the court of public opinion. A business must maintain customers to fully survive any crisis. If the client hasn't hired professional communicators, this should be the attorney's first recommendation.
Public opinion is all about perception over reality.
Therefore, public and internal communications must establish perceptions first. The public is very skeptical. In the court of public opinion the defense MUST always take the stand. The press is driven by its need to tell a story. Failure to provide a coherent explanation about matters under question means the press will fill its stories with messages detrimental to one's own.