Do Lawyers Warning Of The Perils Of Social Media Even Use Social Media?

Legal professionals, and the public we serve, deserve experienced professionals when it comes to counsel on something as important as social media.

social-media-300x199-300x199It’s nuts, but bar association conferences have lawyers who don’t even use social media speak on the perils of social media.

The most recent was last week’s Indiana State Bar Association annual meeting. Though meant to cover research and investigative work through social media, The Indiana Lawyer reported, the focus became the perils of legal professionals using social media.

The perils?

  • Lawyers — especially those who frequently use social media — should heed an ABA opinion, concerning judges, to draw a line between their personal and professional online lives.
  • Legal professionals should become increasingly cautious when they log into various sites.
  • Attorneys should use caution when discussing their work online in that doing so can lead to ethical problems.
  • Social media posts can, at times, constitute legal advertising, which can get attorneys in ethical trouble.
  • Attorneys should list all states where they are admitted on every social media site they maintain so that they never give the impression that they are trying to solicit work in a state where they are not admitted.
  • Law firm employees who are not licensed attorneys can find themselves in violation of ethical standards based on their social media use.

Sure, there’s truth in the above, but the warnings seemed a little extreme. The speakers seemed awfully naive as to what social media is and how it is used by legal professionals.

When was the last time you saw a Twitter profile list all of the states in which a lawyer was licensed? When was the last time you see a lawyer discussing on Facebook details of client matters on which they were working?

I couldn’t help but wonder how regularly these Indiana legal professionals teaching social media actually use Facebook, which 96% of the public uses, and Twitter, which leading lawyers, including in-house counsel, use to engage other lawyers, the public, bloggers, and the mainstream media. Do they even blog?

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The answer, unfortunately, is not that much, if at all.

This spring, I was speaking on an ABA section panel on social media with three other lawyers. None of the three blogged nor used Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, other than as a résumé and digital rolodex.

The outcome was a one-hour session that would scare the heck out of any lawyer who didn’t know any better about social media. I tried, but I was outnumbered.

Imagine a bar association CLE on deposing an expert witness being taught by a probate lawyer who’s never seen the inside of a courtroom. It would be comical.

Yet we have lawyers who know little, if anything, about social media teaching social media to lawyers. The bar association leadership is seemingly secure in their feelings that social media is beneath them and of little importance to most legal professionals. How else can you explain what’s going on?

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Sure, bar associations ought to highlight ethical risks associated with social media. But in presentations to lawyers, bar associations ought to have lawyers who regularly use social media in their professional life (in becoming a better lawyer, business development, professional networking, engaging with the public) and personal life.

Only then would the professionals presenting have context as to the potential of social media and understand that the networking being done via the phone in a lawyer’s pocket or purse is the most powerful networking the world has ever seen.

Only then would the professionals and the bar associations appreciate the power of social media for lawyers to establish trust with the public and make legal information and legal services more accessible. Goals that bar associations talk of, but never reach.

Legal professionals, and the public we serve, deserve experienced professionals when it comes to counsel on something as important as social media.


Kevin O’Keefe (@kevinokeefe) is the CEO and founder of LexBlog, which empowers lawyers to increase their visibility and accelerate business relationships online. With LexBlog’s help, legal professionals use their subject matter expertise to drive powerful business development through blogging and social media. Visit LexBlog.com.

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