Richard Levick and LEVICK: 1998 Founding to Leidar USA

Richard Levick founded LEVICK, a Washington litigation and crisis PR firm, in 1998 and led it as chairman and CEO until he died on April 11, 2023, at age 65. LEVICK closed as an independent firm at the end of April 2023, and its staff joined Leidar USA, part of Geneva-based Leidar, which continues the crisis, litigation and reputation work.

Updated November 15, 2026. Part of EPR's In Memoriam record and its coverage of crisis PR.

1. Who was Richard Levick?
2. How did Levick's legal training shape his firm?
3. What did LEVICK do and which crises did it handle?
4. What books and media work did Levick produce?
5. What happened to LEVICK after Levick's death?
6. What is Richard Levick's legacy in public relations?
7. How does LEVICK compare with other crisis firms?
8. Frequently asked questions

Who was Richard Levick?

Richard S. Levick was an attorney turned public relations executive who founded LEVICK in Washington, D.C. in 1998. He was born in 1958, trained as a lawyer before moving into public relations, and led the firm for 25 years.

The firm's PR Newswire statement called him the father of modern reputation management, and O'Dwyer's reported his death on April 11, 2023, at age 65. A O'Dwyer's obituary of Richard Levick gives the details.

How did Levick's legal training shape his firm?

Levick's law degree let him counsel clients on the overlap between litigation strategy and public communications, a combination his firm called "crisis and litigation communications." That dual expertise became LEVICK's core service and set it apart from PR firms that handled crisis messaging without direct legal fluency.

Why it works: Most crisis communications firms of the late 1990s treated legal strategy and public messaging as separate workstreams handled by separate advisors, often working at cross purposes. Levick's legal training let him align a client's courtroom strategy with its public statements from the outset, reducing the risk that a PR message would undercut a legal defense or the reverse. Source: PR Daily, "Richard Levick, 'father of modern reputation management,' dies at 65," April 2023.

What did LEVICK do and which crises did it handle?

LEVICK's practice covered litigation communications, crisis and regulatory response, reputation defense and public affairs for companies, law firms, governments and executives. In 2019 China Telecom Americas retained the firm for public affairs work, per a company profile.

Its client work included the 2000 Florida election recount and the Catholic Church's clergy sex-abuse scandals, according to O'Dwyer's. Published accounts of the firm also list insurer AIG during its 2008 financial collapse, oil companies following spills, the Venezuelan financial crisis, Chinese trade disputes and prisoner detentions at Guantanamo Bay. Levick also represented foreign governments and public figures facing high-stakes litigation or reputational threats.

What books and media work did Levick produce?

Levick co-authored four books, including "Stop the Presses: The Crisis and Litigation PR Desk Reference." He hosted the "In House Warrior" podcast and was a frequent media commentator on crisis communications, litigation strategy and reputation management.

In 2018, he wrote a Forbes op-ed recounting his firm's work advising the Catholic Church during its abuse scandal, describing his awareness that "when a great institution is mortally wounded, we are all harmed."

Why it works: Levick's four co-authored books and recurring media commentary gave LEVICK a public teaching voice that most boutique crisis firms lack, since firms in this space usually protect confidentiality by staying silent about method. Publishing his framework let Levick build personal authority independent of any single client engagement, which became the firm's primary marketing asset. Source: Sorry Works!, "Tribute to Attorney Richard Levick, 1956-2023," April 2023.

What happened to LEVICK after Levick's death?

LEVICK closed as an independent firm at the end of April 2023, and its team joined Leidar, a Geneva-based PR and advisory firm, in new Leidar USA offices in Washington and New York. O'Dwyer's reported the Leidar move in May 2023.

Leidar founder Rolf Olsen said it had been Levick's wish that his team continue at Leidar, and the two firms had partnered internationally for nearly a decade. Levick died on April 11, 2023, at a hospice center in Bethesda, Maryland, following a battle with cancer.

Leidar USA's initial leaders were John Lovallo in New York, Max Marcucci in Washington and Phil Armstrong in public affairs. In March 2025 O'Dwyer's reported that Meghan Tisinger, who began at LEVICK in 2006, was named head of Leidar's US operations.

What is Richard Levick's legacy in public relations?

Levick's legacy is the practice of aligning legal and public strategy, which the industry now treats as part of reputation management. His firm's leadership described him as a man who "quite literally wrote the book on crisis and litigation communications," a claim supported by his four published works on the subject.

PRWeek and multiple industry obituaries credited him with pioneering the modern discipline of reputation management, a term now used across the PR industry that traces its practical framework to Levick's client work and published methodology. For a related profile, see Liz Kaplow and Richard Levick: PR CEOs.

How does LEVICK compare with other crisis firms?

LEVICK sat in the same field as several firms with EPR profiles: Sitrick And Company, Joele Frank, Sard Verbinnen, Kekst CNC, Brunswick Group and FGS Global.

See EPR's top crisis PR firms, crisis PR and legal communications pages, and the PR agency profiles directory. For another large crisis and advisory firm, see Teneo.