When the legend becomes fact...

The director of environmental research for the California law firm Masry and Vititoe is coming to town, and for business' sake, you should listen to what she says.

Here is the story that captivated Hollywood and the world: In 1991, Erin Brockovich, a single mother with three children, hired the law firm of Masry and Vititoe to handle her car accident case. Her settlement didn't cover all her debts, and she begged firm principal Edward L. Masry to hire her as a $1,200-a-month file clerk.

Later, she began an investigation into the health problems of people who lived in and around Hinkley, Calif. Her investigation led to the revelation that for three decades the toxic chemical Chromium 6 had leaked into the groundwater from the nearby Pacific Gas and Electric's Compressor Station. Brockovich and Masry's case produced the largest legal settlement in U.S. history, as PG&E was ordered to pay $333 million in damages to more than 600 Hinkley residents.

Her story was later chronicled in the blockbuster film Erin Brockovich, which received five Academy Award nominations and earned Julia Roberts a best actress award for her role as Erin Brockovich.

Brockovich is now director of environmental research at Masry and Vititoe, a bona fide celebrity and much sought after lecturer. She has received innumerable awards for her work, has a book coming out this fall, and according to the Masry and Vititoe web site, a series of television specials are in the works.

The only problem in this rags-to-riches tale is in the details. And it is in these details that the lessons for business lie.

First, the facts as presented by Brockovich-Ellis and Masry have been severely challenged.

In March 2000, The Hudson Institute's Michael Fumento, in an op- ed piece in The Wall Street Journal, argued against the scientific underpinnings of their case. According to Fumento's article, the Environmental Protection Agency does consider Chromium 6 a human carcinogen, but one that is linked only to cancer of the lung and of the septum, and only when inhaled in massive amounts over many years. Further, an EPA bulletin issued as late as 1998 said there was no proof that Chromium 6 is "carcinogenic by the oral route of exposure."

Fumento, author of Science under Siege, is not the only journalist to challenge the facts as presented by the plaintiffs' lawyers. Salon magazine's Kathleen Sharp, in a lengthy April, 2000 article, not only questioned Brockovich's and Masry's scientific claims, but alleged widespread legal hanky-panky amongst the plaintiffs' legal team, including conflicts of interest and the over-billing of children represented in the case.

"The movie is mostly lies," said Carol Smith, one of the real- life plaintiffs said in the Salon piece. "I wish the truth would come out because a lot of us are upset. I understand the movie is going to make Erin and the attorneys out to be heroes."

John Stossel of ABC television weighed in shortly after and noted Chromium is indeed a carcinogen, responsible for lung and sinus cancer when inhaled. But he also concluded that there is no scientific proof that chromium in drinking water can cause cancer. Stossel also cited the California Cancer Registry, which found no excess of cancer in the Hinkley area compared with the surrounding counties. Further, New York Times science reporter Gina Kolata wrote "federal agencies whose scientists were not involved in the litigation said evidence was lacking that Chromium 6 in groundwater caused a myriad of health problems."

Arguably, the science behind plaintiff's case looks shakier than the does the defendants' case. And we'll never know if PG&E actually did poison the people in Hinkley: the verdict was not decided in court. Instead, after the 39 losses in arbitration, PG&E did what companies usually do who aren't prepared to battle it out in the court of public opinion: they settled.

Robert Glynn, the utility's CEO was quoted in Brockovich's Wall Street Journal rebuttal as saying "PG&E did not respond to the groundwater problem as openly, quickly, or thoroughly as it should have. It is clear, in retrospect, that our company should have handled some things differently." Another PG&E spokesman publicly acknowledged that they had lost the public relations war, and with it the financial battle. The hard lesson learned is this: lawyers are increasingly forced to argue their cases in the court of public opinion and the full glare of the media spotlight. The refusal (and inability) of PG&E's counsel and management to respond to a problem led directly to a public crisis, which they were equally incapable of handling.

In a public battle, PG&E had their heads handed to them on a public plate. "Alas, the cold, hard facts are no match for a warm smile, dazzling cleavage, and a blinding Hollywood spotlight," said syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin, in an April 14, 2000 column. Even Oprah weighed in: "The people in Hinkley helped Erin to believe in herself. They trusted Erin with their lives. Their trust enabled Erin to grow and realize that inner beauty is most important." Erin says, "I know who I am. I like who I am, and that's why I like helping people."

Erin Brockovich will be speaking tonight to a gathering at the Myriad, hosted by the Oklahoma Bar Association. But it's her actions that ought to speak loudest to Oklahoma businesses and their lawyers: the law and public relations are now inextricably intertwined. Ignore this fact at your own considerable risk.

Corporate counsel and management would do well to remember yet another Hollywood classic. At the end of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, lawyer and Sen. Ranse Stoddard tells the editor of the Shinbone Star that it was Tom (John Wayne) who really shot Liberty Valance, but the editor chooses not to print what he has heard. The editor says, in effect, when the legend becomes fact, print the legend. This time the legend is named Erin Brockovich, a swifter and smarter type of advocate who gave the utility, their lawyers and the pundits a sound beating in the court that increasingly matters most: the court of public opinion.

If you represent business and you ignore this new reality, you just might have to hear the judges in the court of public opinion render the verdict often repeated in Hollywood: "That's all folks!

Scott Mitchell is president of Scott Mitchell & Associates Strategic Communications Consulting of Oklahoma City.

2001Copyright
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