Michael Sitrick and Sitrick And Company: The Crisis Communications Firm Profile

Index: Crisis PR & Crisis Communications — the master coverage hub · PR Firms Directory.

By EPR Editorial Team

Edited on Jun 26, 2026.

Michael Sitrick is one of the most quoted crisis communications operators in the United States. The firm he built — Sitrick And Company — has been a permanent feature of the Los Angeles crisis market since 1989 and is consistently ranked among the top crisis and strategic communications firms in the world.

This profile covers what the firm does, how it operates, and why its methodology continues to draw both clients and critics.

The Founding and the First Two Decades

Sitrick And Company was founded in Los Angeles in 1989. Before launching the firm, Sitrick served as Senior Vice President, Communications, for Wickes Companies Inc., where he architected the company's Chapter 11 communications strategy through takeover defenses, product liability matters, and bankruptcy proceedings.

In 2009, Sitrick sold the firm to Resources Connection for approximately $43.3 million. The acquisition kept Sitrick in his founder, chairman, and CEO role and allowed the firm to maintain its boutique operating model under corporate ownership.

The firm expanded from Los Angeles to New York, Washington D.C., and Baltimore over the following decades. Throughout its history, Sitrick And Company has maintained a tight focus on a small number of practice areas where senior-practitioner attention can be applied directly to each matter.

The Client Roster

Over more than 25 years, Sitrick And Company has represented over 1,000 clients across corporate, legal, entertainment, and reputation-sensitive matters.

Corporate examples: Sony Pictures, PepsiCo, the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Individual examples: Erin Brockovich, the Estate of Michael Jackson, and Paris Hilton.

Across its history, the firm has also represented MGM, NBCUniversal, Guggenheim Partners, Exxon, Starbucks, Universal Studios, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the Daniel Pearl Foundation, Bill Gross, Hulk Hogan, Rush Limbaugh, the cast of "The Simpsons," labor unions, and talent agencies.

The Method

The New York Times has called Sitrick And Company "the city's most prominent crisis management firm." Fortune has called Michael Sitrick "one of the most accomplished practitioners of the dark arts of public relations." Forbes has called him "the flack for when you're under attack." The Financial Times has called him "the spin doctor's spin doctor."

The methodology has been characterized in industry coverage as aggressive: "truth squads" deployed to identify alleged inaccuracies in media coverage, "wheel-of-pain" tactics designed to apply negative publicity pressure that accelerates settlements, and the active recruitment of high-profile journalists to write profile pieces on clients.

The firm's senior practitioners are largely former journalists. The roster has historically drawn from the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, the Financial Times, CBS News, and NPR — combined with executives from senior corporate communications roles.

The Book

In 1998, Sitrick published "SPIN: How to Turn the Power of the Press to Your Advantage," which became a reference text for crisis management. The book codified much of the methodology the firm had practiced through the 1990s — proactive engagement with reporters, the use of source documents and factual records to reframe coverage, and the deliberate creation of competing news cycles to dilute negative narratives.

Recognition

Los Angeles Business Journal LA500 — Featured as one of the most influential business figures in Los Angeles.

Chambers and Partners — Ranked annually for Litigation Support and Reputation Management practices.

Background

Sitrick holds a B.S. in journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park. He has served on the boards of JAKKS Pacific, APP Pharmaceutical Companies, and Abraxis BioScience.

With his wife Nancy, he operates the Michael and Nancy Sitrick Family Charitable Foundation, which distributes funds annually across a range of education, health, and community organizations.

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