Sample Social Media Policies for Law Firms and In-House Counsel
January 17, 2012
As a member of the 2010-11 Meritas Leadership Institute class, I had the pleasure of working with a select group of talented attorneys from across the world to investigate and analyze the role of social media in the practice of law. As part of our year long investigation, we prepared The Social Media Guide for Lawyers. The Guide addresses significant challenges with social media, including ethical issues, time management/productivity, and offers sample firm social media policies that address the following subjects:
- unintended attorney-client relationships
- disclosure of sensitive client/firm information
- alienation of a client/potential client
- damage to professional image
A complimentary copy of the Guide can be found here. The Guide includes both a permissive and restrictive social media policy that can be adopted law firms and modified to meet their specific needs. These guidelines included with the Guide are intended to augment and enhance your existing firm policies, including the firm’s technology and confidentiality policies.
In the most recent addition of Law Practice Magazine, the American Bar Association (“ABA”) suggests certain guidelines for creating a law firm social media policy. I will summarize the ABA’s suggested guidelines on this blog on Thursday.
CEO & Founder of Social Media Law & Order
Ethan teaches social media CLE programs to lawyers, law firms, and legal associations. He can design a one hour, half day, or full day workshop at your office, firm retreat, or conference that will be approved for both ethics and general CLE credit. Learn more about how Ethan can be your social media law keynote speaker at your next conference on topics related to social media and the law.