Legal News

Social Media and the Practice of Law in 2011

By Brian Harris

By Gina F. Rubel
Special to the Legal

The folks at JD Supra, a repository of free legal information shared by the professionals who generate it, prepared a collection of legal professionals? opinions about what surprised us in 2010 and what we expect to see in 2011. The post includes some great insights from legal marketers and other folks from Philadelphia to Los Angeles.

As one who deals with law firms of various sizes, I still find it surprising that many law firms in the United States are either blocking social media outright and/or do not have social media policies in place.

This has become one of the hottest topics in the industry because social media has infiltrated not only how we network, but how we handle litigation, discovery, employee relations, productivity and so much more.

In my response to JD Supra, I said:

?In the age of digital communications, it is important for law firms to understand how to harness the power of social media for networking, business development, public relations and marketing while still understanding the ethical and legal implications. Social media impacts the practice of law, legal matters and litigation at almost every level. From employment matters to communicating with witnesses, and discovery to juries, providing the proper rules and tools for lawyers will make their social media experiences more fruitful.?

It is imperative that law firms take the following steps to ensure they are using and managing social media effectively:

1) Adopt social media policies that address the following: attorney communications with judges, opposing counsel, witnesses, parties, colleagues, clients and the media; discovery/e-discovery; expert testimony; juror selection/instructions; party communications; employee relations; trial publicity; and witness investigations.
2) Educate clients on how to use and not use social media.
3) Be proactive in monitoring the use of social media by staff and clients.
4) Engage in the online discourse carefully.

I predict that social media will continue to play a substantial role in how law firms conduct business but it is going to continue to be a slow process. There are a lot of well-grounded management concerns about the use of social media in business and its affect on productivity. However, that does not negate the need for a social media policy one way or the other.

Gina F. Rubel is the owner of Furia Rubel Communications Inc., a public relations and marketing agency with a niche in legal communications. She maintains a blog at www.ThePRLawyer.com, is a regular contributor to The Legal Intelligencer?s blog and blogs for The Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gina-furia-rubel). You can find her on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/ginafuriarubel or follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ginarubel.  For more information, go to www.FuriaRubel.com.

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on January 10, 2011 (boomark / email).