Social media is indispensable tool for lawyers : New York State Bar

“Social media networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are becoming indispensable tools used by legal professionals and those with whom they communicate.”

This from the Social Media Committee of the Federal and Commercial Litigation Section of the New York Bar Association, in issuing ethical guidelines on social media.

Look at the onus the New York Bar is putting on lawyers when it comes to social media. Care of the Legal Skills Prof Blog, which pulled excerpts from guidelines:

• In conjunction with the expansion of mobile technologies in the legal profession, social media platforms have transformed the ways in which lawyers communicate.
• Lawyers must be conversant with the nuances of each social media network the lawyer or his or her client may use. This is a serious challenge that lawyers must appreciate and cannot take lightly.

Lawyers must be conversant with the nuances of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The reason is that clients are using them.

This committee of the New York Bar is saying nothing less than a lawyer must be able to use social media to competently do their job. You sure as heck are not going to be conversant with the nuances of social unless you’re using social media.

The problem is there are a good number of lawyers as conversant in the use of social media as the folks above are in using a phone.

Kudos also to the committee for crafting some practical guidelines when it come to the ethical use of social media. You can see the excerpts at the Legal Skills Prof Blog and the guidelines in entirety at the New York State Bar site.

Image courtesy of Flickr by judy_and_ed