Question of the Week
What Boundaries Have You Set for Your Own Facebook or Twitter Use?
Posted May 20, 2009 8:34 AM CST
By Molly McDonough
Social networking is fairly new for lawyers, and there aren't many best practices for using the medium for client development and professional networking.
Jones Day partner Steven Bennett, who chairs the firm's e-discovery group, took a crack at it with a Twitter-related cover story in this month's New York State Bar Association Journal (PDF).
Bennett advises that lawyers establish protocols before tweeting, specifically that they avoid "anything but general professional news in their Twitter communications, restricting the group of recipients of Twitter communications (or some subset of such communications) and/or providing periodic notice to recipients of the conditions under which the Twitter communications are made."
This made us wonder if we're going to see 140-character versions of the ubiquitous confidentiality notice that we often see tacked to the end of lawyer-generated e-mail messages. And it made us wonder what you've done, if anything to keep your Twitter and Facebook communications from getting you into disciplinary hot water.
So tell us ...
Have you developed any protocol for Twitter, Facebook or social media conversations? Bonus points if you have cautionary tales to share about how lawyers communicate online.
Answer in the comments below.
Read last week's entertaining responses to this request, "Share Your Witness Attire Horror Stories."
Featured answer:
Posted by John A. Day: "A decade ago I was trying a case in rural, rural Virginia - an area plagued by unemployment and poverty. My client’s daughters were both going to testify. Both lived in NYC, were absolutely beautiful, and very good dressers. Too good for the venue. I took them to Wal-Mart and bought them more appropriate clothes. They literally wept, but showed up to court every day looking Wal-Mart pretty."
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Comments
Donna Chmura
May 20, 2009 8:48 AM CST
Obviously, I think it’s an important topic. Here’s my take: http://nclawlife.com/2009/05/14/social-media-where-are-your-boundarie/
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Nicole Black
May 21, 2009 6:27 AM CST
If I recall correctly, Bennett is on a CLE panel for the NYSBA on this very topic, which is unfortunate, since his recommendation as quoted in this post indicates that he doesn’t quite understand Twitter. His predictably lawyerly advice defeats the very purpose of participation in Twitter.
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JDirk
May 22, 2009 8:17 AM CST
General professional news? Heck, I must be ahead of the curve. The only thing I’ve been posting on Twitter for a while is: “still employed!”
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Andy the Lawyer
May 22, 2009 9:11 AM CST
I don’t use wither, so I suppose my boundaries are infinite.
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Andy the lawyer
May 22, 2009 9:11 AM CST
I meant “either.”
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Ursa Lawyer
May 22, 2009 9:44 AM CST
Simple - don’t post anything you wouldn’t say in the presence of a client or co-workers. So pictures of the drunken wet t-shirt contest, probably not a good candidate for the profile picture. Complaining about a client or particular case, poor subject matter. Generally discussing the challenges of the day or gripes about your spouse - now that is probably fair game.
But truly, I’ve had people I used to work with write some pretty inflammatory things about our previous place of employment on my Facebook wall - that required immediate deletion. Otherwise, it’s utilizing common sense. But, it’s amazing to see how little censorship people employ on Facebook. Apparently, common sense isn’t so common these days.
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Julian Gregory
May 22, 2009 9:45 AM CST
It’s very simple: don’t tweet or Facebook about your work. I recall a story about a public defender here in Nevada who was brought in as a judge pro tem in a criminal case, and was quickly removed because his MySpace profile listed as one of his interests “breaking [his] foot off in a prosecutor’s [nether regions].” Also, be careful of Facebook quizzes: despite how much fun that that “which tyrannical dictator are you?” quiz looks, maybe it’s not the best idea to have a comparison between yourself and Adolf Hitler available on the internet.
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Daniel J. Homick
May 22, 2009 10:00 AM CST
In my opinion Facebook and Twitter are not appropriate mediums for attorney / client development or professional networking. They are too informal. That’s not to say an attorney should not be on Facebook or use Twitter, but not for those purposes. Personally I prefer LinkedIn for professional development. LinkedIn is designed specifically for this purpose and your home page can be constructed in such a way as to address all of the issues raised above. I have noticed a handful of attorneys in my ABA Section starting to use it. In a few years I think it will be wide spread.
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Ariadne Montare
May 22, 2009 10:27 AM CST
My Facebook “friends” include clients, colleagues, and a partner at my firm, so my rule of thumb is to treat my Facebook page not to share anything I wouldn’t be comfortable chatting about in the firm’s kitchen over coffee.
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Kevin E. Houchin
May 22, 2009 10:57 AM CST
1. Provide Value
2. Make Friends
3. Be Nice
4. Keep Secrets
5. Have Fun
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Raleigh
May 22, 2009 11:05 AM CST
All of these things, which are 100% unnecessary, will be 100% regretted a few years down the road, and will be 100% indelible from the web for the rest of your life, like tattoos and body piercings; I managed to live without readily deletable word vomit for forty years and will live for another forty years without it, without regret.
I recently had a Client pull the plug on a deal after searching the web for the other party’s principal, and found a comment he made on a site; Client decided that if his judgment was poor enough to put his name on that comment, then he didn’t want to be in business with him.
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Martha Jane Patton
May 22, 2009 11:10 AM CST
I love Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace and use them for personal interaction, but I am mindful of the judges, attorneys, and employees of the defender organization I head, who are my “friends” there. My politics have always been “out there” even before Facebook, but I endeavor to keep things civil online. One personal rule: no Facebooking during business hours—we’re being paid to WORK during business hours.
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Diana
May 22, 2009 11:24 AM CST
I also feel that both Twitter and Facebook are not appropriate for me as a lawyer with my own law firm. I want clients to come to me because of my abilities as a lawyer not because I posted some cute story on a social network.
I keep a respectful distance from clients. I will work as hard as possible for their case, put everything I have into it, but do not want to be their friend.
I was in a firm that treated clients and friends and the firm ended up closing because these “firiends” expected extra work, extra demands on the attorney’s time, and did not pay the bills. Once the firm got serious about getting some pay, the “friend” client filed malpractice suits against the partners.
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Melissa F. Brown
May 22, 2009 1:21 PM CST
I found many of these comments helpful and insightful. I, though, support the use of Twitter and the professional Facebook pages for my law firm. I recently gave a phonecast for the ABA Family Law Section Law Practice Management Committee and wrote an article. I have not posted the article to my website yet, but I would be happy to post it on the Journal’s site if interested. The title is” Twitter for Lawyers.”
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Darl Gleed
May 22, 2009 1:23 PM CST
Recently a client hired me specifically because I understood twitter, the domain name rights, linkedin, etc. If we are going to provide broad advice to business clients, we need be able to speak the speak.
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Karen Stein
May 22, 2009 3:58 PM CST
Even though I like them, I will not send friend requests to my kids’ friends unless I have an independent friendship with them. The generation gap has its boundaries.
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Eric Cooperstein
May 22, 2009 10:20 PM CST
Facebook is personal. I don’t use it for business, although I do have some colleagues who are FB friends. Also, I am not FB friends with anyone under 18 except my own children.
Twitter is for business. I use it literally as a microblog for thoughts and cases related to my practice (ethics) that I don’t have time to write a longer blog post about. www.twitter.com/ethics_maven.
I’m on Linked-In, but I don’t have any use for it. I am on several listservs that meet all my practice needs and it’s not likely a prospective client would search for me on Linked-In. At best, it provides a link back to my website for people who do happen to find me on Linked-In. There’s nothing compelling about Linked-In that makes me want to go to the site, unlike FB and Twitter.
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BMF
May 23, 2009 12:52 PM CST
Twitter and Facebook are “time sinks.” However I have gotten several clients through blogging. One of the best cases led to my being able to inform a client that, under the law of her home state, she was not illegitimate. A small thing, perhaps, but the client had hidden the details surrounding her birth for years because of this misapprehension.
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bg
May 23, 2009 3:07 PM CST
Keep your Facebook private, carefully screen those you permit to view it, limit what you say about your work, and it won’t come back to bite you. Most postings cross the line from professional into personal, where clients and employers simply do not need to go - do partners, colleagues, or clients really need to see you recounting your drunken days in college or high school? Or talk about the constant updates on life’s doings of kids, home, sports, shopping, or what you are doing on a Saturday afternoon?
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jessica
May 25, 2009 6:23 PM CST
I refuse to use social networking sites. I can guarantee that my firm and its partners and my clients checks out that kind of stuff and not for good reasons.
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NN
May 26, 2009 8:00 AM CST
Facebook and the like are off limits for me. My daughter has been a facebook member since college and I feel that is her space and I should not intrude on it. I do use linked in.
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R
May 26, 2009 9:31 AM CST
I have an unemployed friend with time on his hands, so he’s been spending it on Facebook. Lately, almost every night he’s been sending “virtual drinks” to his wife and others, and they’ve been sending them back to him.
For all I know, the guy doesn’t touch a drop of the real stuff, but he comes across as a total virtual lush. Not a good image.
Never, ever, EVER comment about your work on Facebook or anywhere else unofficial. Ever.
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ESiegel
May 29, 2009 6:47 AM CST
Privacy settings… that is the key. If you use the built-in privacy capabilities of the social networking sites, you can limit the access of any user you are connected with. You can also first group your connections/friends into categories and then set privacy settings for everyone in that category with one set of keystrokes.
I think it’s for the luddites to say that social networking has no place in a profession… it’s pervasive. It has a place in all professions and that place will just continue to grow as time goes by. Don’t miss the boat because you are risk averse or afraid of change.
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William Wheatley
May 29, 2009 8:36 AM CST
Social networking in the flesh has always been a good pond in which to fish for potential clients. Attorneys (and experts, like me) do it all the time. Facebook is no different, except that everything everyone says is transcribed. Pretend you are networking at a cocktail party with a court reporter following you around and transcribing everything you say and everything that is said to you. Don’t say anything you don’t want published to your employer and your clients, and you’ll do all right.
I use FaceBook for social networking and fishing for potential clients. I use LinkedIn as a professional site, and to feed through a link into my professional web site. On LinkedIn I can find additional experts when I need them. I don’t tweet.
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