Dallas, Texas — Serving Clients Nationally
Strategic Counsel. Trusted Results.
A boutique communications advisory that specializes in public affairs, reputational concerns, issues & crisis management, and corporate campaigns. We serve executives, companies, boards, and law firms navigating issues and opportunities that demand representation that is creative, responsive, and influential.
Principal-led counsel on every engagement — every inquiry handled in strict confidence
Why Now
Trust has become a measurable asset — and the one most exposed the moment a crisis hits.
Reputation is one of the most valuable assets an organization owns — and one of the few that can change overnight.
In an era of nonstop news, social media, litigation, political polarization, and heightened public scrutiny, a single event can shape how customers, investors, employees, regulators, and the public view an individual or organization for years to come. Protecting your brand is no longer simply a communications function; it is a business imperative that influences trust, relationships, and long-term enterprise value.
The organizations and leaders that emerge stronger are rarely those that avoid difficult moments. They are the ones that respond with sound judgment, credible strategy, and disciplined execution. Whether confronting a crisis, navigating a sensitive legal or business challenge, or capitalizing on a defining opportunity, protecting your reputation and shaping the narrative are essential to preserving trust, strengthening stakeholder confidence, and advancing enterprise value.
That is the work we do: protecting and advancing the reputational interests of leading entrepreneurs, companies, and organizations navigating litigation, investigations, activism, or public scrutiny. You deserve to help shape the story told about you — guided by sound judgment, executed with discretion, and supported by experienced senior advisors.
Services
Promote your voice where it matters most — the court of public opinion.
Every engagement is led by experienced senior advisors who bring judgment, discretion, and hands-on involvement from beginning to end. Because every client's circumstances are unique, we tailor the scope of our work to the challenges, objectives, and outcomes that matter most.
- ✓CEO advisory
- ✓Board communications
- ✓Executive positioning
- ✓Leadership transitions
- ✓Strategic planning
- ✓Confidential executive counsel
- ✓Media relations
- ✓Corporate communications
- ✓Public affairs
- ✓Messaging
- ✓Thought leadership
- ✓Executive visibility
- ✓Stakeholder engagement
- ✓Crisis planning
- ✓Active crisis response
- ✓Litigation communications
- ✓Regulatory matters
- ✓Reputation management
- ✓Rapid response
- ✓Corporate campaigns
- ✓Public policy initiatives
- ✓Community engagement
- ✓Strategic positioning
- ✓Reputation enhancement
- ✓Executive advocacy
Embedded communications support for a specific high-profile matter — a capability law firms can point to directly in client pitches and RFPs.
- ✓Matter-specific communications strategy alongside trial teams
- ✓Trial & verdict publicity management
- ✓Positioned as a named capability in client pitches & RFPs
- ✓Available as a project engagement or bundled retainer
Who We Serve
Senior advisors. Select clients. Trusted relationships.
We work with a select group of companies, law firms, and individuals at any given time — never a roster large enough to dilute impact, results or senior-partner attention.
Companies & Boards
Public and PE-backed companies and boards of directors facing governance issues, corporate campaigns, executive turnover, or regulatory and legal exposure. We work directly with boards, general counsel, and executive leadership to protect enterprise value when it is most exposed.
- Activist-campaign & governance-crisis response
- Executive turnover & leadership-transition communications
- Regulatory action & investigation response
Law Firms
From the Am Law 100 to litigation boutiques — law firms often need a trusted outside partner for high-profile matters, investigations, and trial publicity — a capability that strengthens their advocacy. We work alongside trial teams, not around them.
- Embedded litigation & investigation communications
- Trial & verdict publicity management
- Client-pitch & RFP-ready crisis capability
- Spokesperson preparation for depositions & hearings
Executives & Individuals
C-suite executives, board members, and high-net-worth individuals and family offices leveraging PR opportunities or facing personal reputational exposure — media scrutiny, litigation, leadership exits, or online attacks. Every engagement is handled with strict discretion, directed by senior, trusted communications professionals.
- Personal crisis planning & proactive reputation management
- Leadership-exit & sensitive communications
- Coordination with personal & family-office counsel
A note for advisors: we also work closely with those who advise clients before a triggering event occurs. If you advise companies, boards, or high-net-worth individuals and want a vetted crisis partner in place ahead of time, we'd welcome a conversation.
Why Carter Public Affairs
We built the public affairs and crisis & reputation boutique that's been missing — not another generalist agency with a crisis practice bolted on.
Most public affairs and PR firms treat crisis and reputation work as one service line among many. We built a firm around it entirely, committed to client service and public advocacy that is uniquely creative, responsive, and influential. Headquartered in Dallas, engaged nationally — for the moments that matter.
Discretion as the Default
Every matter is handled under strict confidentiality from the first phone call. We do not take on engagements that create a conflict with a matter already in progress.
Senior Counsel, Always
No account is handed to a junior team after the pitch. Every matter is directed by senior, trusted communications professionals, from the first call through resolution.
Deliberately Select, Not Scaled
We hold our active roster to a small number of relationships at any given time. That exclusivity isn't a limitation — it's what preserves the attention high-stakes communications require.
Dallas Roots, National Reach
Headquartered in Dallas with a unique brand of relationships, responsiveness, and entrepreneurial spirit — engaged by individuals, companies, boards, and law firms nationally.
About the Principal
Travis Carter
Founder & Principal | Strategic Communications & Public Affairs Advisor
For more than 25 years, Travis Carter has advised companies, boards of directors, law firms, executives, entrepreneurs, investors, and institutions on matters where communications, public affairs, reputation, legal strategy, and business objectives converge.
He founded Carter Public Affairs to provide clients with a different kind of advisory relationship — one built on direct access to senior counsel, exceptional client service, and the focused attention that comes from a deliberately select client roster.
Before founding Carter Public Affairs, Travis served for more than 16 years as Managing Director of Public Affairs for a nationally recognized commercial litigation firm, where he was a member of the firm's senior leadership team and built a premier public affairs and litigation communications practice. He advised clients navigating high-profile litigation, regulatory investigations, executive transitions, and reputational challenges, working alongside trial teams, corporate leadership, and outside counsel on matters where legal strategy and public perception were closely intertwined.
Selected Representative Experience
Representative experience includes advising clients on matters such as:
- A seven-year reputation management campaign supporting a multinational Fortune 500 company navigating a complex environmental controversy in the United States and internationally.
- A multi-year legislative and media investigation involving compensation practices at a leading private university.
- A multi-year congressional investigation and extensive national media scrutiny involving a high-profile business organization and its leadership.
- A six-year strategic communications campaign for a national civil rights organization.
- Advising companies, executives, and organizations confronting litigation, regulatory oversight, activist campaigns, executive transitions, and other matters attracting significant public attention.
Earlier in his career, Travis founded and led Carter Public Relations, Inc., a nationally recognized communications firm serving Fortune 500 corporations, entrepreneurs, investment groups, and nonprofit organizations. He also held leadership positions in corporate communications and public affairs with Allstate Insurance Company, where he served as a spokesperson on the company's National Catastrophe Team, coordinating communications during major natural disasters and other high-profile events across the country.
His experience also includes public affairs roles with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
Travis began his career as a newspaper reporter covering business, government, courts, and public affairs for the Associated Press, The Tulsa Tribune, and The Daily Oklahoman.
His career spans journalism, entrepreneurship, corporate leadership, public affairs, litigation strategy, and executive counsel.
Travis has been named to the Dallas Business Journal's "40 Under 40," recognized nationally by PR News as one of its "15 to Watch," and has spoken before professional audiences, including the Public Relations Society of America, on litigation communications and navigating the court of public opinion.
Today, Travis advises a deliberately select group of executives, companies, boards, and law firms facing consequential opportunities and challenges. His practice is intentionally boutique, allowing every engagement to receive direct senior attention, responsive service, and strategies tailored to each client's unique circumstances. Clients engage Carter Public Affairs not simply for communications expertise, but for experienced judgment when reputation, leadership, and organizational success are most closely connected.
Request a Confidential Consultation
All inquiries are confidential.
Tell us briefly what you're facing. Every inquiry is held in strict confidence.
Boutique public affairs services and crisis & reputation counsel for companies, boards, law firms, and executives.
Strategic counsel. Trusted results — from Dallas, for clients nationally. All inquiries confidential.