Law students ought to talk only about weather or sports on social media?

Minneapolis Attorney, Randall Ryder, has a post on the Lawyerist this morning regarding Social Media in Law School.

I follow the Lawyerist for what can be some interesting insight on law firm marketing, practice management, technology, career development, and the like.

When I saw social media and law school, my thinking was great, someone sharing insight on how social media can be used by law students for relationships/reputation building or how social media is being used on a worthwhile project law students are participating in.

My gut tells me that law students, law professors, and practicing lawyers who follow Lawyerist felt the same way. Interesting topic, I’ll take a look.

What do we get from the post? That social media can be a little dangerous.

Do your best to stick to the random comments that most people make online–“the weather sucks” or “I can’t believe the Vikings traded for McNabb.”

Say what? Limit your use of social media as a law student to discussing the weather and second guessing general managers of professional sports teams?

As I am apt to do I shared my two cents on Twitter: “Example of very very shallow thinking.”

Aaron Street, a Minneapolis Lawyer and Co-Publisher of the Lawyerist (and pretty good guy) responded on Twitter, “I think Randall’s post only meant to cover a portion of the topic.” and directed me to Aaron’s comment on Lawyerist.

While caution is certainly warranted, these are all just tools. They can be used for big, stupid mistakes, but they can also be used productively in law school to find mentors, to explore job prospects, to begin focusing on learning a practice niche, to build trust in the the broader community.

Social media doesn’t need to come only with warnings.

Point taken Aaron, but Ryder’s post is pretty misguided.

Some law schools have one-third of their graduates from the last three years without jobs in the law. Law school placement offices are terribly lagging in their understanding of how law grads can use LinkedIn, Blogging, Facebook, or Twitter as a means of enhancing one’s reputation as a law student and building relationships with lawyers and businesses who hire lawyers.

Social media is a way under utilized resource by law students looking to build their reputations and law grads looking for work. Why? Because the legal profession preaches fear.

• The ABA teaches at their annual meeting last week of the pitfalls and perils of social media.
• Law schools which I have approached to set up a free blogging platform & blogging education for their students said no because law students would blog about drinking and partying and then not get jobs.
• Many senior lawyers who ought to be mentoring young lawyers on how to be a good lawyer and how to get business, rather than learning how social networking/media can help do this, are scared of their shadow when it comes to the using the Internet for anything more than email.

Then we get Ryder’s post which warns of the perils of social media for law students and grads and tells us nothing about any positives regarding social media, like how you may be able to use it to get a job and pay your student loans.

Sure, law students could do stupid things on Twitter, Facebook, and the like. Yes, those stupid things could cost them a job.

But let’s weigh the benefits of social media (or even mention them) versus the risks. Benefits tip the scales. Hands down.

The Lawyerist publishes some excellent information, insight, and commentary. This post just doesn’t stack up.