Legal Ethics, Small Law Firms

Can You Troll For Clients On Twitter?

Conduct yourself online just as you would at your kid's little league game. Display expertise on a topic, have regular conversations with people about issues, and eventually clients will come to you.

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You better SEO that website for casual browsers in order to potentially convert viewers on mobile while disrupting… oh God, I can’t take it.

In regard to getting clients, the internet has been a boom to some lawyers and a bust for others. Actually, it’s likely been a bust for most. But that doesn’t keep lawyers from spending insane amounts of money on websites, blogs, SEO, etc., trying to get clients. Just this past week, a lawyer mentioned he was spending $5k per month for a crappy website from a very well known legal SEO company that wasn’t getting any traction. Crazy town.

But, there is no denying that the internet is where most people turn these days when looking for answers to questions. It doesn’t matter whether it’s, “What is the capital of Zimbabwe?” or, “I got hurt at work, can I sue my employer?” As such, lawyers spend ridiculous amounts of money trying to either find potential clients online or draw potential clients to their website.

Yet there are those pesky ethical rules. What constitutes advertising and what constitutes solicitation? When is it okay to contact a potential client and when is it not? When you tweet out something vaguely law-related, is it legal advice? (Considering the number of lawyers who have disclaimers in their Twitter profiles, this is a major concern for some.)

This past week over on Reddit, a user contacted me via private message and asked me for advice on a legal issue and help in finding a lawyer because of some of my past comments. I demured as it wasn’t something I was interested in handling and suggested he contact his state bar’s referral service. But it raised an interesting scenario to me. In this situation, someone contacted me first, so speaking with them was not an issue. But what if someone posted about a legal problem on Reddit or Twitter? Could an attorney respond to them while complying with ethical rules?

As it just so happened, another lawyer on Reddit had been thinking about the same scenario and requested an opinion from the New York State Bar Association Committee on Professional Ethics (CPE). The lawyer received an opinion and posted it in a lawyer-only sub-Reddit. While the opinion is obviously only applicable to New York lawyers, it can at least provide some guidance for those lawyers who are active on social media services such as Reddit and Twitter.

A Social Hypothetical

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The factual scenario is as follows:

The questions posed are:

  1. May an attorney respond by email or through a social media website to an individual who posts about a specific problem on an internet forum or other similar website and who asks to be contacted by a lawyer about that problem to discuss undertaking a representation?
  2. May an attorney who wishes to find plaintiffs for a potential case post an invitation on a third-party website, such as Reddit or Twitter, for individuals to contact him if they experienced a particular problem? If so, what requirements must be followed?

The CPE determined that the threshold issue for the first questions was “whether such contact would constitute ‘solicitation of,’  or ‘advertising’ directed to, the potential client by the lawyer.”

The CPE determined that:

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As the potential client initiated the conversation through a post on a social media service, a response in the medium requested by the potential client would not constitute “solicitation.” As long as the communication only discussed the potential client’s problem, it would not be advertising either, however, if the lawyer went on to describe their firm’s services in an effort to secure the potential client, the CPE held that it would constitute advertising.

As for question 2, the CPE found that a lawyer may post on a third-party website to solicit plaintiffs for a case, “unless the post relates to a specific incident involving potential claims for personal injury or wrongful death,” and would be subject to the Rules on attorney advertising. If the post referred to a specific incident, it would also constitute a solicitation.

Be A Person, Not A Spambot

So here is one state bar’s opinion on communicating with potential clients on social media services. In New York, it’s okay to do so within the framework set out above. But that doesn’t mean lawyers should suddenly attempt to flood social media services with posts about potential cases.

The key word in social media is social. Being on Reddit or Twitter is the equivalent of the workplace water cooler, or being at a cocktail party. As people have pointed out again and again, would you show up at such an environment with a megaphone and start yelling about what a great lawyer you are? Of course not, people would avoid you like the plague.

The same is true on social media services. Scammy marketing people put up posts on legal related sub-Reddits and they get downvoted into oblivion by users already. Spammy behavior is just not how people act in the real world, and guess what? The internet is the real world too.

So conduct yourself online just as you would at your kid’s little league game. Display expertise on a topic, have regular conversations with people about issues, and eventually clients will come to you.

(Flip to the next page to read the CPE’s full opinion.)

Keith Lee practices law at Hamer Law Group, LLC in Birmingham, Alabama. He writes about professional development, the law, the universe, and everything at Associate’s Mind. He is also the author of The Marble and The Sculptor: From Law School To Law Practice (affiliate link), published by the ABA. You can reach him at [email protected] or on Twitter at @associatesmind.

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