Dallas, Texas — Serving Clients Nationally
Strategic Counsel. Trusted Results.
A boutique strategic communications and public affairs advisory providing senior-level counsel to executives, companies, boards, investors, developers, and law firms navigating consequential issues, reputational challenges, and strategic opportunities.
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 reputation 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 direct, senior-level counsel from start to finish.
Services
Amplify your voice and position where it matters most — the court of public opinion.
Every engagement is directed by the Principal and supported, when appropriate, by a trusted network of specialists with expertise tailored to the matter. 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-level counsel. 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 direct engagement.
Companies & Boards
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
- Messaging development and spokesperson preparation
Executives & Individuals
C-suite executives, board members, and high-net-worth individuals and family offices pursuing proactive visibility or facing personal reputational exposure — media scrutiny, litigation, leadership exits, or online attacks. Every engagement is handled with strict discretion and directed personally by the Principal.
- Personal crisis planning & proactive reputation management
- Leadership-exit & sensitive communications
- Coordination with personal & family-office counsel
A Note for Trusted Advisors
We work closely with attorneys, family offices, executive advisors, consultants, and other professionals whose clients occasionally face consequential moments. Whether the need is strategic positioning, a significant corporate initiative, reputational counsel, or crisis communications, we believe the strongest relationships begin before they are needed. We'd welcome the opportunity to become a trusted resource for you and your clients.
Why Carter Public Affairs
Senior judgment. Deliberately selective. Personally engaged.
Carter Public Affairs was founded on a simple premise: the most consequential matters deserve experienced counsel, not layers of account management. We maintain a deliberately select client roster so every engagement receives direct senior attention, strategic focus, and absolute discretion. Based in Dallas and engaged nationally, we advise executives, companies, boards, developers, investors, and law firms navigating consequential legal, reputational, regulatory, and public affairs matters.
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 off after the pitch. Every matter is directed personally by the Principal, 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 creativity, 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 national 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 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 family office / 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 executives, companies, boards, and law firms.
Strategic counsel. Trusted results — from Dallas, for clients nationally. All inquiries confidential.