Reputation management companies in Brisbane for 2026: crisis PR firms, defamation lawyers and review management compared.
Anyone searching for reputation management Brisbane options will find three quite different kinds of help. The city has established corporate communications firms that handle issues and crisis communications for listed companies and government, commercial litigation firms that run defamation matters in the Supreme Court of Queensland, and digital specialists who work on search results, review management and content removal. Most reputation problems need one of these first, and sometimes two working together.
For this list we checked each firm on its own website: a real office or named team in Greater Brisbane, and a clearly stated reputation, issues, crisis or defamation service. Directories, lead-gen sites and firms without a local base were left out. If the problem has a search angle, our list of top SEO agencies in Brisbane is a useful companion, and the Brisbane services hub gathers our other local guides.
| Company | Based In | Best For | Known For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rowland | Eagle Street, Brisbane CBD | Listed companies and large organisations | 24/7 issues and crisis team, FleishmanHillard association |
| Adoni Media | Spring Hill | Leaders who will face the media | Crisis communications and media training led by a former correspondent |
| Cooper Grace Ward | George Street, Brisbane CBD | Defamation claims and pre-publication disputes | Injunctions, apologies and retractions |
| Phillips Group | Charlotte Street, Brisbane CBD | Government, health and infrastructure bodies | Crisis simulations and research on 30 major reputation crises |
| SAS Group | Adelaide Street, Brisbane CBD | ASX-listed companies and not-for-profits | On-call media spokesperson and issues management |
| Elevate Communication | East Brisbane | Queensland brands and councils | Dedicated issues and crisis team |
| Boss Lawyers | Turbot Street, Brisbane CBD | Businesses targeted by false online posts | Concerns notices, takedown requests and urgent injunctions |
| Complete Crisis Solutions | Clayfield | Organisations planning for disruption | Crisis communications tied to business continuity |
| Stonegate Legal | North Quay, Brisbane CBD | Small businesses hit by bad reviews | Defamation advice on online reviews |
| Impressive Digital | Brisbane team, Melbourne head office | Brands with review and search problems | Review platform management and search clean-up |
Rowland works from Level 2, 10 Eagle Street in the Brisbane CBD and says it has been in business for 34 years. It operates in association with FleishmanHillard, giving it access to a network of more than 80 offices worldwide. Its corporate affairs practice offers on-call, 24/7 crisis and issues management specialists, and the firm says it has worked on some of Australia’s most difficult and high-profile issues. Services listed on its site include crisis preparedness, crisis exercises and training, spokesperson training, litigation communication support, brand and reputation recovery and community perceptions auditing. On the investor relations side it covers financial issues management and activist shareholder defence. Case studies on its site include work for National Storage and the Port of Brisbane. Rowland suits listed companies, infrastructure operators and large organisations that want a single firm able to plan for a crisis, run it when it happens and handle the rebuild afterwards.
Adoni Media is based at Level 3, 113 Wickham Terrace in Spring Hill, with a second office in Chifley Tower in Sydney. Founder Leisa Goddard started the firm in 2012 after more than three decades as a journalist, including work as a foreign and war correspondent, and the agency describes itself as specialists in reputation management and crisis communication. Its homepage frames the work as helping clients prepare, promote and protect their brand and reputation. Media training is a large part of the offer, aimed at turning executives into clear, concise and confident spokespeople before a difficult interview or press conference. The firm’s client list includes Swyftx, Greyhound Australia, Boeing Defence Australia, Glencore, Rio Tinto, Queensland Police and the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Adoni Media is a strong fit for organisations whose reputation risk will play out in front of journalists and cameras, and for leaders who want to rehearse hard questions with people who have asked them for a living.
Cooper Grace Ward is a Brisbane law firm at Level 21, 400 George Street, and it runs a dedicated defamation and reputation management practice. Before publication, the team works to stop false or adverse material from going out, including urgent court injunctions and reviews of contentious material before broadcast. After publication, it seeks removal, correction or reduced visibility of the material, and says it has an excellent record of obtaining apologies and retractions. Its court experience is mainly in the Supreme Court of Queensland, including civil jury trials. For online attacks, the firm can help identify people behind internet and social media posts, liaise with publishers to remove or modify material, and run investigations with technology experts. It also advises on corporate reputation issues, such as limiting unjustified adverse publicity after a major fraud. Partners Rocco Russo and Miranda Klibbe are named on the practice page. This is the firm to call when the matter may need to end in a letter of demand or a courtroom.
Phillips Group describes itself as a fully integrated communication agency and works from Level 3, 201 Charlotte Street in the Brisbane CBD. Reputation management is one of its core solutions, and the service page covers issues the team has handled such as management changes, allegations, fraud and misconduct. On the crisis side, it offers tailored preparedness plans, simulations and leadership training, then rapid support to contain an issue, limit damage and manage long-term recovery when a crisis does land. Media relations, public messaging and media training for executives and spokespeople are part of the same offer. The firm has published a Before the Crisis Report based on its research into 30 major reputation crises, and its case study titles include work on sensitive communication after a tragic event and minimising disclosure fallout. With sectors spanning government, health and care, infrastructure and finance, Phillips Group suits public bodies and regulated organisations that need reputation work joined up with stakeholder engagement and research.
SAS Group is based at Level 7, 241 Adelaide Street in the Brisbane CBD and works with ASX-listed companies, not-for-profits and a range of industry sectors. Its issues and crisis management service is built around proactive risk assessment, strategic media engagement and an on-call media spokesperson, which is useful for organisations without an in-house media team. A separate strategic communications service focuses on protecting and growing reputation through planned communications. The firm’s media training comes as custom packages covering what journalists want, how to handle different interview situations and how to keep key messages from being edited out, delivered as one-on-one coaching or group workshops. SAS Group has also grown by acquisition, bringing Cole Lawson Communications and Sabio into the business. It is a sensible choice for mid-sized listed companies and community organisations that want a Brisbane team on call for media, without the overhead of a larger network agency.
Elevate Communication has its head office at 4/13 Manilla Street, East Brisbane, with a second office in Toowoomba, and says it has been in business for 18 years. Its issues and crisis management service is run by a dedicated team that helps clients prepare for and reduce reputational risk, and the agency encourages businesses to keep an up-to-date reputation management plan. Alongside that, it covers PR, media relations, corporate communication, marketing and stakeholder engagement, and it is a member of IAP2, the community engagement association. Clients named on its site include Kelsian Group, Foodbank Queensland, Sunny Queen Australia, Allianz Partners, Budget Direct and the Queensland Government, with case studies for Moreton Bay Regional Council and Crime Stoppers Australia. Elevate fits Queensland brands, councils and community-facing organisations that want crisis readiness as part of a broader communications relationship rather than as a standalone emergency service.
Boss Lawyers has its head office on Level 27 of Santos Place, 32 Turbot Street, with a second office in Spring Hill, and acts for clients in Queensland and across Australia. Its defamation practice starts where most matters do, with a formal concerns notice under the Defamation Act setting out the imputations and asking for correction, removal, an apology and undertakings. For immediate risk, the firm advises on takedown requests and reporting to platforms, and it can move to urgent injunctions or full defamation proceedings where needed. It also negotiates apologies and retractions, defends people accused of defamation and offers reputation monitoring. Its defamation page stresses early evidence preservation and reminds readers that proceedings generally need to start within 12 months of publication. Boss Lawyers suits business owners and professionals dealing with false reviews, social media posts or competitor attacks who want a lawyer-led approach to content removal without going straight to court.
Complete Crisis Solutions has its head office at Suite 3/318 Junction Road, Clayfield, in Brisbane’s inner north, and also lists offices in Sydney and Melbourne. Its consulting is aimed at protecting people, assets and reputation, and its 24/7 on-call service includes crisis communications support covering media and stakeholder management. What sets it apart from PR agencies on this list is the operational side: it builds business continuity programs that include policy, plans, playbooks and recovery roadmaps. That means communications planning sits alongside decisions about keeping the organisation running during a disruption, which is often where reputational damage really comes from. Complete Crisis Solutions is a good fit for organisations that want to prepare before anything goes wrong, such as operators of critical services, multi-site businesses and boards that need a tested crisis plan rather than a press release template.
Stonegate Legal is a commercial litigation firm with a Brisbane City office at Level 10, 95 North Quay (by appointment) and its main office in Noosaville on the Sunshine Coast. Defamation is one of its core practice areas, alongside commercial disputes, building and construction and debt recovery, and it publishes specific guidance on defamation and bad online reviews for Brisbane businesses. Services cover defamation advice and defamation litigation, including claims arising from online reviews and serious false allegations. The firm offers a no-fee, no-obligation 30-minute consultation with a lawyer, which helps a business owner find out early whether a review is worth pursuing at all. Legal practice director Wayne Davis is a Queensland Law Society member and received the Mondaq Thought Leadership Award in 2024 and 2025. Stonegate suits small and medium businesses that need a straight answer on whether a damaging review crosses the legal line before spending money on it.
Impressive Digital is headquartered in Cremorne, Melbourne, and its reputation management page says its team of technical reputation specialists works across Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and the Gold Coast. For online reputation management, Brisbane businesses have fewer locally based options than for PR or legal help, which is why a national agency with a Brisbane team earns a place here. Engagements start with a consultation and an audit of brand mentions and reviews, then move into ongoing work with specific programs for Google, Facebook, Glassdoor and Tripadvisor reviews, plus an enterprise offer. SEO, social media and content specialists work together to strengthen positive results, and an in-house PR team produces content such as blogs and press releases. Usefully, the agency is upfront that truthful negative reviews cannot be taken down and that no one can guarantee a repair timeframe. Impressive is a Certified B Corporation led by founder and CEO Rob Tadros, and suits brands whose problem lives mainly in search results and review platforms.
Start by naming the problem. A breaking media story, regulator inquiry or workplace incident calls for a crisis communications firm with people on call. A false and damaging post or article may need a defamation lawyer. A slow build-up of poor reviews or an old news story sitting on page one of Google is a job for a review management or search specialist. Many Brisbane matters overlap, so ask each firm what it will not handle and who it works with when the problem crosses into legal or digital territory.
Queensland adopted the national Stage 1 defamation reforms from 1 July 2021. A plaintiff must now show the publication caused, or is likely to cause, serious harm to their reputation, and a concerns notice must be sent before proceedings start. Most corporations can only sue if they are not-for-profits or have fewer than 10 employees, and they must show serious financial loss. Proceedings generally need to start within 12 months of publication. A good adviser will tell you early if your matter does not meet these tests.
Google removes reviews that breach its prohibited and restricted content policies, such as fake engagement, conflicts of interest, harassment or off-topic posts. It does not remove a review because it is negative or unfair. Be wary of any firm that guarantees removal of genuine reviews. The eSafety Commissioner can order removal of seriously harmful adult cyber abuse, but it states that purely reputational matters fall outside its scheme and it does not decide whether content is defamatory. Lawful content removal usually rests on platform policy, a court order or a publisher agreeing to act.
The ACCC’s guidance on online reviews is clear that fake reviews breach the Australian Consumer Law, whether a business writes them, pays for them or posts them about a competitor. It also warns that selectively removing or hiding negative reviews can be as misleading as posting fake ones, and that generous incentives for reviews can inflate ratings. Ask any review management provider how it generates reviews, whether it filters out unhappy customers before they are invited, and how it discloses any commercial relationships.
Crisis firms often work on a retainer for preparedness and an hourly or daily rate during an active crisis, while law firms usually quote by stage, from a concerns notice through to litigation. Search suppression is the slowest option, typically measured in months, because new positive content has to earn its rankings. Ask for a written scope in A$, a clear reporting rhythm, and a plain statement of what success looks like, such as a retraction, a removed post or a measurable change on the first page of results.
Brisbane’s reputation market splits into three camps, and the right choice depends on where the damage sits. Rowland, Adoni Media, Phillips Group, SAS Group, Elevate Communication and Complete Crisis Solutions cover issues, media and crisis communications. Cooper Grace Ward, Boss Lawyers and Stonegate Legal handle defamation and lawyer-led removal. Impressive Digital covers review platforms and search results with a Brisbane team.
Whichever route you take, ask for honest advice on what can and cannot be achieved under Australian law and platform rules, and be cautious of anyone promising guaranteed removals. For a wider view of national providers and practical guides, see our reputation management hub, and compare options interstate with our list of top reputation management companies in Sydney.