BOSTON — Joe Baerlein has launched a new consultancy following his departure earlier this year from Rasky Baerlein. 

Baerlein & Partners, a boutique communications agency in Boston, will focus on crisis and reputation management services, strategic planning for advocacy initiatives, legislative/ballot campaigns and communications counsel for C-suite executives and boards of directors. 

Baerlein added that the firm aims to integrate traditional PR strategies with rapid technological advances. 

"The challenges for protecting reputation, bringing the best practices to crisis assignments and using the most sophisticated digital and analytic tools in advocacy campaigns are the impetus behind the creation of Baerlein & Partners," said Baerlein. 

The new firm follows Baerlein's early 2017 departure from a nearly 20-year partnership at Rasky Baerlein, a public and government relations firm, which has since rebranded as Rasky Partners.

Baerlein's new team of 'veteran practitioners' consists of partner firms that are brought in by Baerlein based on client needs. These include Jonathan Karush, president of Liberty Concepts; Eran Lobel, CEO of Element Productions; Rosemary Petta and Susan Ryan of Petta Ryan; John Marttila of Marttila Strategies and Ed Davis and Sharon Hanson of Edwards Davis LLC.

The team cites technological innovation, data analytics and the multitude of diverse information channels as motivation for spearheading a 'virtual agency.'

"It's paramount that we adopt technological changes at a rapid fashion and understand where they fit with the strategies we create, and understand where technology stands and how it affects them," Baerlein said.