Les Zuke, director of communications, joined King & Spalding in October 2004. He is responsible for external and internal communications, media relations and reputation management for the firm and its offices, working with the firm’s chairman, practice group leaders and office managing partners. He is resident in the New York office.
Zuke has extensive experience in PR and communications across diverse industries. Previously, he was head of global public relations at international law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges. Before that, he held senior communications positions at international accounting giant Ernst & Young, financial services group Quick & Reilly, tobacco behemoth Philip Morris U.S.A, soft drink marketer The Seven-Up Company and others. He was also a contributing reporter for the nation’s largest chain of weekly newspapers.
Throughout his career, Zuke has established cutting-edge operations in public relations, media relations, investor relations, editorial services and has produced award-winning programs and publications.
Marketing the Law Firm newsletter ranked King & Spalding’s marketing and communications department the best in the United States in 2011, saying, “A superb combination of intelligent use of technology, knowledge of the marketplace, and doing the right things at the right time have made this firm a model for the rest of the country to follow.” Under Zuke’s direction, King & Spalding won the 2008 PR News Legal PR Award in the media coverage category for “outstanding media relation efforts related to the positive media coverage of a law firm." In 2003, PR Week magazine named Zuke’s public relations department at Ernst & Young one of the top five in the United States for the effective direction of crisis and media communications activities in the face of widespread corporate and accounting industry scandals.
Zuke received a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Missouri—St. Louis and attended Washington University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
