Ryan McSharry

About Ryan

Ryan is a highly experienced strategic PR adviser to corporates, professional organisations, non-profits and private clients.

He leads Infinite Global’s Professional Services group in the UK, advising legal, financial services, real estate, and consulting firms on their media, brand and marketing communications activity.

Ryan is also a crisis, disputes, and litigation specialist, providing counsel to a range of domestic and international clients facing reputational risk.

Published works and speaking engagements:

• PR Week – Nadhim Zahawi – When SLAPPs backfire (and why PR Is crucial)
• The Times, Raconteur – Tread carefully: the art of ESG disclosure
• Professional Pensions – Trustee comms takeaways from the Capita cyber-attack
• PM Magazine – Influencer Marketing and Professional Services
• Wealthbriefing – High-Profile Divorces: Navigating Media Interest
• FT Adviser – Advisers must help HNWIs tread carefully amid legal and moral tax concerns
• Wealthbriefing – HNW Individuals’ Public Profiles Risk Reputation Threats
• Counter Fraud – Setting the record straight: Effective communications when dealing with an investigation
• The Times, Raconteur – How to minimise reputational risk to your business
• The New Law Journal – Truth, lies and media mobs
• The Global Legal Post – Global crisis advisor Ryan McSharry on champagne and lies, understanding one’s role in the media and re-visiting company crisis plans
• The Times, Raconteur Crisis Management in a Digital World
• Risk and reputation: developing the tools to manage a crisis – PM Forum
• Reputation… Reputation… Reputation – The three faces of contemporary risk management with NEDA and Kroll
• Crisis management and influencer marketing – the Luxury Law Summit Europe
• On profit and profile – New York Law Journal

Awards and rankings:

• Ryan is individually ranked by Chambers & Partners for Litigation PR (Band 2) and Crisis PR & Communications (Band 2).
• He is a Law Dragon Global 100 Leader in Legal Strategy & Consulting (1 of 10 in the UK).
• He was named one of Business Today’s Top 10 most influential Litigation PR and Communications Experts 2023
• He is also ranked in Spear’s magazine’s prestigious Reputation Management Advisers Index [2024 edition to be released 8 February].

Representative matters include:

• Providing comprehensive reputation management services to the former Managing Director of a global retail brand in relation to charges brought by the UK Serious Fraud Office
• Advising on the largest lawsuit in UK history, a £5bn damages claim brought on behalf of 235,000 Brazilian individuals and organisations against a major industrial company for failing to prevent a deadly dam collapse
• Advising a £10bn UK pension fund on cyber-security and data-breach communications
• Acting on behalf of legal counsel and administrators to activate SFO action and achieve regulatory redress for investors following the collapse of the UK’s largest hedge fund manager
• Advising a former CEO of an international investment bank in relation to criminal charges brought against him in Italy
• Providing strategic counsel on one of the largest international arbitration settlements in history, involving a $8.73 billion award against a nation for the expropriation of oil assets from a US energy conglomerate
• Advising an international law firm following a high-profile and multi-jurisdictional data breach with global media exposure
• Advising the former CEO of a global extractives company facing complex litigation with multi-jurisdictional elements
• Advising on a landmark $204m fraud case examining banks’ duty of care to their customers at the UK Supreme Court
• Advising a Russian software company in relation to litigation brought against the US Department of Homeland Security following its ban on the company’s products being used in US government organisations
• Advising a global claimant law firm in relation to collective action concerning LIBOR and FOREX benchmark manipulation
• Providing PR counsel to a leading accountancy firm in relation to its appointment as liquidators over political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, following its collapse post-Facebook scandal
• Advising a large UK construction firm on media and stakeholder communications strategy, following the discovery of risk-to-life building defects in one of its residential properties
• Advising legal counsel in relation to a high-profile Coroner’s Inquest relating to a motoring death and the subsequent recall of 300,000 vehicles
• Steering a blockchain and cryptocurrency research specialist through a de-stealthing initiative, tackling public misconceptions and bringing the firm’s vision to a global audience
• Advising the family of a British national illegally detained and imprisoned by a foreign government under charges of espionage
• Leading an international law firm through a comprehensive review of its abilities to manage cross-border crisis communications incidents between its two primary offices, London and Hong Kong