Coagie & ekw
You're way overestimating the influence of what you call '
PR' people. Even when they exist they're way down the pecking order and I don't think the (company) lawyers would pay too much attention to them.
toffeez,
I don't think either one of us indicated that
PR people had any status or power over the lawyers, manufacturer, airline or anyone else. I did not write that the
PR people would "command" the lawyers, I wrote "convince", as in advise. The lawyers might seek the advice of
PR people. For instance, they might want to know "How do we go about portraying Airbus (or whomever) as the victim?".