Earlier this year, in one of its many format changes, Facebook forced users to make their profile info more public via Community Pages. Facebook created pages based on users’ lists of interests, jobs, and favorite things to help people find others “who share similar interests and experiences.”
So if you, for example, listed “document review” as something you like, you’d be a member of this page. And maybe this page too.
One issue discussed in some circles was the potential trademark violation in Facebook’s automatically creating and populating Community pages for businesses and brands. Another issue picked up by the National Law Journal was that some of the Community Pages created aren’t very flattering to law firms.
If you listed your employment as “Slave” at Skadden Arps, for example, you’re responsible for this page:
What are some of the other interesting law firm-affiliated Community Pages on Facebook?
Jenna Greene writes in the National Law Journal:
For brand-conscious law firms, Facebook’s latest “innovation” is a bit mortifying. After all, does Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe want to be known for its porno stars? Shearman & Sterling as paper-pushers extraordinaire? Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman as ticklemasters? DLA Piper — well, we won’t even print the one about DLA Piper.
We will. Here’s a list of some of the pages that now exist thanks to disillusioned law firm employees:
- Doggy style at DLA Piper
- Human paper shredder at Cravath
- Bimbo at Baker & McKenzie
- Whipping boy at McDermott, Will & Emery
- Blackline makers and Worker bees at Cleary Gottlieb
- Corporate litigation, corporate finance, and M&A b*tch at Sullivan & Cromwell
- Latham & Watkins morlock
- Sexy legal secretary at Patton Boggs
- Kirkland Salt miner
- Corporate gangster at Morrison & Foerster
Very appropriate for MoFo.
NLJ got a Facebook spokesperson to explain:
Facebook spokeswoman Meredith Chin explained in an e-mail how the more unconventional law firm pages came into being. “All of these pages were created based on what people had put in their profiles. For instance, if someone put ‘slave’ in their job description for that law firm, it created a Community Page for that field. These are user-generated descriptions, Facebook created the pages based off of those.”
Chin added that the pages “are still in beta and we’re making improvements to the process all the time.”
The majority of the pages — as many as 500 for some law firms — are for legitimate positions like associate and partner and paralegal and librarian. But mixed in with them are the others, like a window into the psyche of law firm employees: peon, drone, serf, plankton, worker bee, geek, corporate gangster, Sisyphus, meat cutter and — most popular of all — slave.
C’mon now, associates. If you want to make this really accurate, you should describe yourselves as “six-figure slaves.”
Firms no fan of Facebook pages [National Law Journal]
