Social media is an excellent tool for advertising your services as an attorney. In fact, self-promotion is a critical aspect for those who practice law, regardless of the area. If you choose to utilize social media, you need to be aware of the inherent dangers of bragging on social media to avoid potential ethical violations.
The Dangers of Bragging on Social Media
Social media can be an excellent tool for attorneys. However, misused platforms can spell trouble for a law firm. Let us take a look at some of the most common ethical dangers you could encounter when using social media to advertise your firm and services.
Blogging About the Law
Blogging is another common way to connect with potential clients. Your blog posts may highlight questions about specific legal topics or cover topics like new laws that could potentially impact future clients’ cases. While you can share your blog posts on social media, it is essential to understand that blogs are considered educational material. Avoid posting a blog to encourage someone to retain an attorney.
Client Confidentiality Requirements
As an attorney, you need to be fully aware of your requirements when it comes to client confidentiality. Remember that you are not allowed to reveal any information regarding who you are representing unless they provide explicit and informed consent. If a client does not consent to have their information shared, you may only post information authorized under your area’s professional rules of conduct.
Soliciting Business
When you use social media for advertising messaging messages about your firm’s services, what you share goes beyond the scope of your followers, friends, and connections. Those advertisements are generally subject to solicitation guidelines. In the event you are sending messages to individuals who have not opted to receive them, you must make sure that the information is advertising material.
Boasting Professional Successes
Social media can seem like a great place to post your law firm’s success. Remember that any posts are subject to the ethics rules on Advertising. You need to make sure that your posts are not misleading in any way and that you do not breach any confidentiality standards.
Personal Social Media Posts
As an attorney, you can generate professional social media accounts for your law firm. However, you should ensure they are not violating standards when creating profiles or publishing posts. The information posted needs to be factual and contain any required disclaimers.
Professional Responsibility and Advertising
Attorneys need to abide by the legal advertising rules set by the American Bar Association (ABA). The ABA outlines how lawyers can communicate information about their services. Once you better understand your ethical advertising obligations as an attorney, you can work on creating compelling social media posts without worrying about violating any guidelines.
Get the Most Out of Social Media
As an attorney, it is your responsibility to maintain competence in the law and changes to its practice. Per ABA Rule 1.1, “To maintain the requisite knowledge and skill, a lawyer should keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology, engage in continuing study and education and comply with all continuing legal education requirements to which the lawyer is subject.” Social media and advertising fall under the category of relevant technology. To ethically navigate social media, consider the following tips.
Carefully Choose Connections
Remember that you are not allowed to represent clients with whom you have a potential conflict of interest. You need to be careful when accepting connections on social media accounts. I’ll remember that you can unintentionally present conflict with a client based on your social media accounts, so always be aware of potential issues.
Clearly Define Representation
How you phrase your posts, videos, and infographics needs to be precise. You should not use language that could unintentionally or intentionally form an attorney-client relationship. You also need to take care not to provide legal advice. Make it clear that your content is not intended to give advice or form a relationship.
Ensure Staff Are Aware of Best Practices
Any non-lawyer person employed or retained by a law firm needs to be aware of their obligations, as you could be held responsible for any content they share. If, for example, a staff member at your law firm makes an unethical post on Facebook, you can be held responsible for their actions. As such, you will need to ensure the content is removed as quickly as possible. The same goes for clients, depending on the nature of the post.
Research Jurors Carefully
While you and your team have the right to due research during the jury selection process, you need to remember related ethical practices. If you are researching jurors on social media, you are only allowed to access content that is available to the public. Never attempt to view anything that is only available via special access. That means not joining private groups or sending private messages to review private or restricted content.
Take Security Precautions
One of the most critical social media practices you can implement as an attorney is to keep your personal profile private and completely separate from any professional profiles for or related to your law firm. You should also avoid sharing content on personal and professional accounts that could be viewed as legal advice.
To prevent potential ethical issues between your personal and professional social media pages, consider limiting the number of people finding your personal profile. You will also want to implement any necessary security features to protect the content you share personally. Doing so will lower your risk of accidentally violating any rules regarding ethical conduct on social media.
Digital Marketing: Next Steps
As lawyers continue to use digital communication to connect with potential clients, staying abreast of social media and advertising rules is imperative. Adhering to the rules will avoid potential violations and associated penalties and help you create ethical, effective advertising without bragging on social media.
Annette Choti graduated from law school 20 years ago, and is now the CEO & Owner of Law Quill, a legal digital marketing agency focused on small and solo law firms. Law Quill is the only legal digital marketing agency that provides unique, SEO-optimized content, pre-packaged content, and courses for lawyers to learn SEO themselves through Law Quill Academy. Annette used to do theatre and professional comedy, which is not so different from the legal field if we are all being honest. Annette can be found on LinkedIn or at annette@lawquill.com.
