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LinkedIn now serves as professional profile of record for lawyers

Linkedin for lawyersTech Crunch reported yesterday that LinkedIn did $243M in 2010 revenue with $15.4 Million in net income. Not a strong profit margin yet, but that’s a 102% increase in revenue over 2009.

With an upcoming IPO this year, LinkedIn’s prominence as the professional network of record for lawyers and law firms, is only going to be strengthened. There’s simply no excuse for lawyers not to be using LinkedIn and the networking tools it presents you.

Look at the growth figures I pulled from LinkedIn SEC filings.

  • Registered users increased from 32 million in 2008 to 90 million in 2010.
  • Unique visitors increased from 36 million per month in 2008 to 65 million per month in 2010.
  • Page views increased from 36 billion per quarter in 2008 to 65 billion quarter in 2010.

LinkedIn’s strategy includes serving as the “Professional Profile of Record.”

By maintaining the trust we have developed with our members and through continued improvements, such as enhancing our profile tools and search engine optimization, we seek to be the professional profile for every professional worldwide. Using our platform, any member can find, connect with and learn about other professionals

For decades Martindale-Hubbell served as the professional profile of record for attorneys and law firms. Their day has past. LinkedIn has replaced Martindale-Hubbell.

Not only does LinkedIn serve as your profile as a lawyer, but LinkedIn provides a vibrant networking platform to network within the industries and communities you’re looking to grow your practice.

As a lawyer, there’s no excuse for not having completed your LinkedIn profile and begun to use LinkedIn to connect with business people and other legal professionals. For law firms, there’s no excuse for not having an educational program in place to teach your lawyers how to do these things.

Larger law firms paid Martindale-Hubbell hundreds of thousands of dollars for directory listings. It may be prudent to now use some of those dollars for the resources and personnel needed to develop LinkedIn education programs.