Team

Kerry is one of the UK’s foremost legal and litigation PR consultants and is regularly consulted by corporates, law firms and individuals, including celebrities, for strategic PR advice.

She has been working in legal PR and communications for almost 30 years, having started her PR career working for a specialist professional services consultancy. She then went on to work for several large PR agencies, where she led accounts for clients such as Royal Mail, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, BDO Stoy Hayward and City & Guilds. Kerry has also held senior in-house positions at City University London, where she was Head of Communications & Events, the Department for Work and Pensions as Head of PR, and Lloyds TSB Foundations as Head of Information and Communications. Kerry holds the Chartered Institute of Public Relations Diploma.

Since co-founding Black Letter Communications in 2011, Kerry has built a specialism in helping law firms and their clients develop media strategies in support of their cases. She has particular experience with public inquiries, inquests and cases heard at the High Court and the Supreme Court. She asks insightful and difficult questions to determine the strategy and tactics required to effectively deliver the best story.

Kerry led the PR for the launch of the landmark litigation against World Rugby, England Rugby and Wales Rugby Union on behalf of the claimants over the failure to protect players from the risks caused by concussions. She is currently engaged by the lead solicitors working on behalf of bereaved families at the Covid-19 Inquiry.

Clients benefit from Kerry’s expansive media knowledge and straightforward but compassionate approach, praising her for her ability to grasp key legal arguments and maintain complete control and composure when dealing with the media.

Outside work, Kerry enjoys walking her miniature poodle, Poppy, watching Coronation Street, reading and supporting Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Neil is a highly experienced and award-winning legal journalist who provides clients of Black Letter Communications with expert, strategic insight into the legal market, help in crafting their messages in the best way to attract the interest of the media, and top-quality editorial support.

Neil is a qualified solicitor and has been a legal journalist since 1995. He is the founder and editor of Legal Futures, a news-driven website providing market intelligence for law firms of the future. He is a recognised market commentator on ABSs, legal regulation and the future of the market as well as costs, funding and the Jackson reforms.

Neil has freelanced for a wide range of publications, including The Guardian and The Times and was formerly deputy editor of the Law Society Gazette. He won the Legal Journalism Award at the 2014 Halsbury Legal Awards.

Neil has a critical eye for detail and readily advises on what will and won’t make a news story. Clients also benefit from his wide knowledge of what is going on in the market, his network of industry contacts and his experience in chairing events and roundtables.

Outside work, Neil supports Luton Town attending home and away matches with his son and daughter (when she gets off Instagram).

Louise Eckersley is Black Letter’s longest-serving team member, joining in 2014. Louise has over 20 years’ experience working on PR and communications for professional services organisations, both agency side and in-house. Throughout her career, she has advised law firms, barristers’ sets and legal associations on PR and communications strategy, and for eight years was responsible for PR at City law firm fieldfisher, building its media profile and managing internal communications.

Louise is experienced in devising thought leadership campaigns and in content creation, delivering topical and engaging content for media, social media, corporate profiling and client communications. As well as working on communications across the full breadth of legal practice areas, she has expertise in diversity, equality & inclusion and legal education campaigns.

Louise has managed communications around organisational change, including merger discussions, management restructures and new office openings and has handled press interest in high-profile court cases. She advises on national news approaches, internal communications strategy and getting to the heart of client issues. Additionally, she drafts and edits client publications, being renowned for her ability to translate highly technical matters into engaging copy and has written numerous successful award entries.

In her spare time she enjoys visiting art galleries, going to stand up comedy nights, and baking and doing arts and craft activities with her two young children.

Jon has worked in PR and communications for 20 years and has extensive experience both in-house and agency side of developing multi-channel marketing and communications strategies to drive growth. Having worked across multiple sectors and disciplines during his career including corporate, consumer, crisis comms and B2B, Jon is highly skilled in identifying and constructing campaigns that resonate with media to reach the targeted audience. Recent roles include leading the brand growth function for global communication agency, Porter Novelli, heading up the marketing and communications function for Huawei in the UK and Australia and leading Samsung’s European corporate and B2B PR efforts.

Jon’s extensive crisis comms experience has seen him work closely with legal teams to control the narrative around a number of prominent news events including Samsung’s Note 7 product recall, Donald Trump’s banning of Huawei 5G telecoms equipment and a series of scandals involving high-profile TV presenters for the BBC.

In a corporate setting, previous roles and clients have included Hogan Lovells, Manpower Group, Costa Coffee and the Home Office while on the consumer side Jon has worked with a wide spectrum of household name brands including UPS, The Discovery Channel, Nivea and Unilever.

In his spare time, Jon is a keen DIY enthusiast and is currently renovating his house (slowly). He is also an avid Birmingham City fan, a keen chef and a dab hand at Lego building with his 6-year-old son.

Lizzie Wright has more than 15 years’ experience in corporate, financial and professional services public relations roles, both in-house and agency side. Lizzie started her career agency side where her clients included both large financial institutions such as BNY Mellon, as well as niche asset managers.

Prior to joining Black Letter Communications in May 2017 Lizzie spent a number of years working in-house at international law firm Bird & Bird where she was responsible for the creation and delivery of their UK PR programme across all sectors, as well as developing individual spokesperson profiles.

Lizzie is experienced in devising and implementing strategic and targeted PR campaigns for clients across both B2B and consumer publications. She has particular experience in raising corporate and individual spokesperson profiles and is skilled in content creation for both internal and external audiences across traditional and social media channels.

In her spare time, Lizzie enjoys photography, a good book and getting out and about in the Chiltern Hills around her home with her three young children.

Sue is an experienced journalist and editor who spent more than 12 years working for the Manchester Evening News and its associated titles, part of one of Britain’s largest newspaper publishing groups. After leaving journalism, she moved to national law firm Slater and Gordon where she spent six years as senior media advisor, helping to support clients and fee earners while at the same time securing record coverage.

She has managed PR activity for the firm on a number of high-profile cases including the Manchester Arena bombing, the Grenfell Tower tragedy and multiple abuse scandals engulfing the worlds of sport, religion and politics.

Sue is highly-skilled in both corporate and consumer PR, crafting and delivering effective campaigns which raise the profile of individuals and organisations in the eyes of their people, their peers and the public.

In her spare time, Sue enjoys live music, travel and exploring the great outdoors with her young son and her cockapoo, Rufus.

Rebecca has been with Black Letter since its inception in 2011 and ensures that the business operates smoothly to support our consultants and deliver a first-class service to clients. She is involved in all aspects of its back-office functions from finance and budgeting to marketing and HR. She is also a co-director of Legal Futures, the online news and training provider to the legal sector. Prior to this, Rebecca worked in marketing for investment banking and professional services firms, including JPMorgan and RSM. In her spare time Rebecca likes practising her Spanish, diving into a good box set and giving treats to her shih-tzu, Caspar.

Jonathan has been working as a professional photographer for 25 years, specialising in portraits and events.

When shooting events Jonathan is unobtrusive in style, with a well-trained eye for capturing the crucial moments as they unfold. With headshots he has a knack for putting people at ease, and an accomplished way with lighting and post-production.

He is a regular and trusted photographer for organisations such as: the Irish Independent, the Bar Council, Legal Futures, the Law Society Gazette, Sustain, British Red Cross, Thames 21 as well as numerous private clients. He also provides high quality video output for events on request, creating captivating showreels and stories.

Longer term work runs alongside Jonathan’s daily assignments, such as his current exploration of the Thames islands, which is available as a book. Prior to that he was selected as the Photographer in Residence with the Canal and Rivers Trust.

Aside from photography Jonathan enjoys spending time in the countryside, and trying to persuade his two young daughters to accompany him on wild swimming or kayaking excursions.

Sam is a multi-award-winning marketing expert and the director of Legmark – a specialist law firm marketing agency – working with the legal sector to improve digital and online performance.

He played a pivotal role in the transformation of Bott and Co Solicitors into one of the largest consumer law firms in the UK, and managed the marketing of the firm between 2014-2018 when they had the 5^th highest revenue growth of all UK law firms.

Sam was responsible for bringing the area of flight delay law to the UK public in 2013 as part of his work with Bott and Co, winning several awards in the process for marketing and PR campaigns.

He has worked alongside some of the world’s largest and most prestigious media and digital agencies in conversion optimisation, PPC, and social media advertising.

Sam turned his board-level law firm experience into launching his own legal marketing agency (legmark.com) to help other law firms make more money from their websites, and regularly partners with Black Letter Communications.

He now works for a range of clients in the legal sector on business development, SEO, website performance, content marketing, and conversion optimisation, among many other areas.

Emma is a Chartered Accountant who initially worked in practice but has been working in-house with clients for over 20 years. She has worked for a variety of clients in various sectors ensuring their accounting records are kept in great shape.

Emma has been working with Black Letter as their Financial Controller for 10 years. She prides herself on her attention to detail and loves a spreadsheet!

In her spare time, Emma loves to shop for a bargain, enjoys walking in the countryside with her husband and curling up with a good book.