Another week has passed, and another group of people have started using new internet technology to connect with others and build business.  Hopefully, that group of people includes some lawyers.  Welcome to part 22 of our blog series on social media for attorneys.  This week we will take a look at an article that was published in this month’s edition of the New York State Bar Association Journal.

The cover article is titled “Look Who’s Talking: Legal Implications of Twitter Social Networking Technology”, by Steven C. Bennett.  It is always great to see a prominent legal publication run a story on social media, especially when they go and make it the cover.  And this article really touches on some important points that lawyers need to know about the service.  Follow the link to read a copy of the article online.

My favorite quote from the piece comes right towards the end.  “The only reliable means to cope with new technologies like Twitter is to embrace an understanding (if not a use) of such technologies, to participate actively in efforts to understand how such technologies may modify legal regimes, and to help clients formulate best practices to control and exploit such technologies.”

Mr. Bennett displays an understanding of Twitter, and does a nice job of combining thoughts on how to use the service in a legal sense with the idea that there is a lot of “yet-to-be-written” law about what you can and cannot say in such online conversations.  Some key takeaways include the future of legal ethics regarding communication over social media and using Twitter messages as part of the discovery process.

After I read it I decided to do a little research, and found that the NYSBA was on Twitter over at www.twitter.com/NYSBA.  I would have been a little disappointed if they had not been.  It’s good to see that more and more bar associations and legal authorities are getting involved, recognizing that social media is a powerful tool, and something that needs to be accepted and addressed in the legal community.  At Lawline.com, we’d like to think it is partly because of the efforts of this blog and others like it!

Articles like this one by Mr. Bennett are just the beginning of the examination process, whereby laws and procedures will be written and practiced as they pertain to social media.  And though this blog series has tended to focus on the implementation side of social media for lawyers, the future of the written law in this area is just as important.  So we will be sure to keep up with any updates.

Past Installments of this Series:
Part One – Intro to Social Media for Attorneys
Part Two – Signing up for the Networks
Part Three – Using Blogs as an Information Source
Part Four – Start Blogging Today
Part Five – Introduction to Twitter
Part Six – Introduction to LinkedIn
Part Seven – Networks as a Communication Tool
Part Eight – Submit Yourself to Blog Catalogs
Part Nine – Put Your PR Department to Work
Part Ten – Lend us your Comments
Part Eleven – Intro to Viral Marketing
Part Twelve – Answer Questions 2.0
Part Thirteen – The Big Picture
Part Fourteen – Interactions on Blogs
Part Fifteen – Interactions on Networks
Part Sixteen – Recruiting on the Networks
Part Seventeen – Promote Yourself to Get a Job
Part Eighteen – Video Resumes
Part Nineteen – Social Media on Social Media
Part Twenty – Blog Content is Vital
Part Twenty One – Law Students are Coming