Comments on What is the worst legal ethics or liability issue LexBlog has seen in lawyer blogging? | Real Lawyers Have Blogs

tracy@pluggedinlawyer.com (Tracy Thrower Conyers) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:14:08 -0800

From an ethics and legal liability standpoint, common sense should be enough to keep most lawyers out of trouble. The bigger risk that I see is what individual lawyers can do to a law firm's brand with poorly executed blogging strategies. Now, THAT could be a real liability risk but alas, apparently not the one the wonks are worried about.

kevin@lexblog.com (Kevin OKeefe) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:29:35 -0800

You're spot on Tracy.

Common sense and the fear of losing your law license is enough to reign in most lawyers. But having lawyers who are not familar with how and what to blog is another story. A blogger who does not know what they are doing can damage their reputation, the firm's brand, and waste a lot of time.

I've said more than once that lawyers are not born bloggers.

freelancelaw@gmail.com (Melody Kramer) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 18:59:45 -0800

I agree. The widely disseminated four examples of lawyers acting foolishly via social media reflect poor decisionmaking that could have played out in various mediums. The truth is that social media simply creates new venues for people to act stupidly in (forgive the poor grammer) - don't blame the venue.

I, for one, I gained immeasurable benefit from thoughtful blogging by other lawyers and hope they all continue to benefit the profession in this way.

fragmintz@gmail.com (Mike Mintz) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 10:22:11 -0800

I agree with the comments on this post for the most part: lawyers as a risk adverse, usually sensible group are likely to avoid ethical issues when it comes to blogging. This is especially true of "blawgs" or other professional uses of social media. Do you think there are any additional issues that may come up with lawyers doing personal blogging or engaging in social media in non-professional contexts that can come back to haunt them professionally? Are we less sensible when our guard is down and we're off the clock? I agree that the few examples of lawyer gaffs in social media are blown up to epic proportions they almost become urban legends, but as tools evolve and more lawyers come into these spaces, are there more subtle ethics traps they should be careful of?