Overview

Audrey B. Young is a senior strategic communications advisor in Holland & Knight's Washington, D.C., office. Ms. Young leads the firm's High-Stakes Communications Team and serves on the Risk and Crisis Management Team. She is a seasoned public relations and litigation communication strategist with an extensive background in public affairs and crisis communications. She is a national advisor to parties in high-stakes litigation, including mass tort litigation, junk science, false claims, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), antitrust, and settlement coercion. Ms. Young designs strategic communication initiatives for the leaders of corporations, coalitions, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), governments and high-profile individuals. Among other complex and challenging issues, she has advised the leadership of corporations and organizations around the globe involved in significant public policy disputes and/or litigation, including affordable healthcare, anti-greenwashing, national security government contracts, corporate governance, anti-trafficking, animal welfare, environmental contamination and product liability.

Ms. Young develops communication and media strategy and messaging to advance public policy reform and business-growth objectives, as well as to communicate effectively during government investigations, attacks by politically entrenched policy critics, accidents, data security incidents, assaults on corporate practices, supply chain scrutiny, jury trials and class actions. A longtime public affairs campaign strategist, she works with a wide range of science, health, safety, organized sports, higher education, national defense and data security experts throughout the world on critical issues where commentary or politics have received more attention than science and/or the facts. Working with a team of widely recognized public affairs professionals in key markets around the globe, Ms. Young navigates sensitive community-based issues and broad public policy matters that are playing out online and in the news.

During major business deals, offerings and product launches, Ms. Young mobilizes third-party experts and works with leading journalists to inform newsworthy business, trade and consumer media coverage in key markets throughout the U.S. and worldwide. Her work with the media on major issues includes interaction with journalists, editors, producers and bloggers who work for CNN, BBC, Reuters, The Associated Press, Bloomberg, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The Guardian, Forbes, Time, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Vanity Fair, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Politico, ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, NPR, PBS, Discovery Channel, Huffington Post and other major business, science, health, medical, higher education and legal news outlets.

Ms. Young also serves as a risk and crisis management communication authority for the Financial Services Volunteer Corps (FSVC), advising emerging economy national bank leaders on implementation of effective communications in the wake of regulatory and bank failures that have undermined public confidence in the financial sector.

In addition, Ms. Young is National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)-trained and certified for managing communications during an accident or incident.

Representative Experience

  • Advise on communication strategy and serve as a primary media contact for a leading U.S.-based vintner in high-profile news about viticulture public policy
  • Design and implement litigation communication strategy and media initiatives for litigators advancing landmark antitrust litigation in the U.S. and Europe 
  • Serve as the lead communication strategist and media contact for New York- and Los Angeles-based celebrities involved in high-profile litigation and/or investigation
  • Develop risk and crisis management communication strategy and serve as a primary media contact for a national security U.S. government contractor during high-profile investigations and litigation
  • Defended a major environmental protection foundation in headline news involving litigation over the preservation of the largest estuary in North America
  • Advised on public affairs and risk management communications during high- profile attacks by critics in North America and Europe surrounding animal welfare and environmental stewardship
  • Advised on risk management communication and media strategy and served as a primary media relations contact during the global settlement of more than 50 cases in multiple states and a multidistrict litigation (MDL); shaped fair and balanced media coverage around the country about the settlement, including a multipart national news report on the underlying claims
  • Developed and implemented a risk and crisis management communication initiative and served as the primary media contact in the wake of a massive data security breach involving a U.S. and United Kingdom government contractor and sensitive data related work with a pro-business nongovernmental organization (NGO), an Am Law 100 firm, several U.S. and U.K. intelligence agencies and several Fortune 100 companies
  • Advised on risk management and federal policy reform communication strategy, message development and media relations during a threatened recall of a major pet therapeutic
  • Served for more than a decade as the primary media contact for major oil companies in MDL in the Southern District of New York over product liability and environmental damage claims, including claims by state attorneys general from various states
  • Developed and implemented a risk and crisis management communication and media initiative for a national trade association representing nearly 300 manufacturers and component suppliers producing approximately 98 percent of all recreational vehicles manufactured in the United States to respond to concerns surrounding formaldehyde in temporary emergency housing
  • Developed and implemented a risk management communication and media initiative and served as the primary media contact for an international NGO in environmental litigation making headlines over allegations of greenwashing crops
  • Advised on and implemented a risk mitigation communication and media initiative for a high-profile international women's soccer organization
  • Designed and implemented a multiyear litigation communication and public affairs initiative to advance tribal lands objectives for one of the largest Native American tribes
  • Developed and implemented a worldwide market launch communication and media strategy and served as the primary media contact for a game-changer, all natural new sugar

Credentials

Education
  • Skidmore College, B.A., English Literature, Creative Writing
Memberships
  • Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)
  • National Association of Professional Women (WPR)
Honors & Awards
  • Holland & Knight Pro Bono All-Star, 2020, 2021

Publications

Speaking Engagements

News