Social networking costs are minimal -- it's not like sponsoring a table at an awards dinner or printing brochures -- so your return on investment is astronomic...

Cornelius' comment was part of a story on Legal OnRamp, started by Cisco Systems Inc. General Counsel Mark Chandler and former Perkins Coie lawyer Paul Lippe. In less than a year, Legal OnRamp has grown to more than 3,000 members from 200 firms and 400 companies.

Allen & Overy, whose partner Kenneth Rivlin unsuccessfully tried kill off associates use of Facebook, saw enough merit in social networking sites to invest in Legal OnRamp. Per Rivlin:

We saw both lawyers and staff using the site to build professional networks. Firm management saw the opportunity for lawyers to exchange resumes, make client contacts and circulate best practices memos about everything from writing a contract to structuring a deal.

With the ability to browse individual lawyer bios, visit message boards, attend Q&A sessions, join groups, and receive Facebook-style updates on other lawyers, Cornelius 'favors Legal OnRamp over other business networking sites like LinkedIn and LawLink because it's interactive and offers access to potential clients through its in-house contacts.'

I recently joined Legal OnRamp, courtesy of an invite from an in-house counsel I met via LinkedIn. I haven't spent enough time on it to personally form an opinion on it's value.

But 3,000 lawyers from 200 law firms, presumably large law, and 400 companies combined with large law firms investing in the social networking site ought to tell you something. Some lawyers are seeing value in social networking.

That's the word from John Lipsey, LexisNexis VP Corporate Counsel Services, at the Martindale-Hubbell blog.

Strange position to take when:

• There's 119,000 LinkedIn profiles from those within the 'law practice' industry per a Google search across the LinkedIn directory.
• A quick search for 'General Counsel" at LinkedIn draws the maximum of 500 search results. There's certainly many more.
• Like Doug Cornelius, who also found Martindale's position curious, I am seeing an explosion of lawyers adding profiles at LinkedIn.
• Legal OnRamp, a social networking site for lawyers in private practice and in-house started by Cisco general counsel Mark Chandler, has in its short history more than 175 companies signed up, including several leading U.S. banks and a clutch of major corporates.
• DLA Piper, the largest law firm in the country is using a Facebook-style networking tool for its trainees.
• Mike Dillon, General Counsel at Sun Microsystems and Executive Vice President of the company's legal department, finds wikis, social networking, mash-ups, virtual communities and blogs incredibly rich and powerful when it comes to knowledge sharing and communication.

I'll concede that most lawyers have not figured out how to effectively leverage social networking sites. Like the use of Google, Amazon, and other Internet services that no one was clamoring for but which we now could not live without, it'll take time.

Despite Lipsey's 'talking to a couple hundred corporate counsel,' the train is leaving the station on this one, we're not going back.