Face Time for Lawyers

by Emmett Berg

With more than 300 million people on the social networking site Facebook.com, it's inevitable that some of them are lawyers. But what happens when an attorney's personal and professional life overlap online? So far, the answer includes both opportunity and hazard.

Like nearly all online social networks, Facebook is a site where people can create personal profiles and post photos and videos. Access to each profile can be restricted to only those the owner accepts as "friends." People can also join "interest groups," where they may meet others who share a common interest.

Early this year IP lawyer Daliah Saper, principal at Saper Law Offices in Chicago, did just that when she joined a Facebook interest group about Israel. Another member of the group had a question about contracts and contacted Saper. By March Saper found herself with a new client. "I didn't even have to try to get that business," she says. "I was just in a public area [online], and that person happened to find me."

Beyond such happenstance, some lawyers use Facebook as a marketing tool. "I was slow to come to it?the idea of putting things out there in such a prominent way," says Beverly Hills sole practitioner Patrick Gorman, whose firm is listed on Facebook. "Now I know it's a great way to serve my clients and have more of a public profile. Facebook is essentially an office. It's a place people come and find you."

Gorman, like Saper, has gotten new business through online social networks. But other attorneys also cite the intangible benefits of these networks, such as when a client sees an attorney's more human side revealed online. "[Facebook] may not ever replace face-to-face marketing," says lawyer and law-firm consultant Larry Bodine, based in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. "But done right, it can be effective for business development."

Still, mixing professional and social contacts online can be problematic. Do you want both groups to have access to your recounting of Saturday night's blowout? To avoid such situations, Saper recommends Facebook's "Friend List" function, which lets users separate Facebook friends into lists and then controls who can see what.

Attorneys also must be wary about dispensing legal advice in response to questions asked in a Facebook posting, notes San Francisco?based tech, new-media, and arts lawyer Colette Vogele. For example, an online questioner may not live in California, and the bar association of the questioner's state may require additional disclosure from an attorney before he or she responds online.

Lawyers can imperil their reputations, Vogele adds, by writing ad hoc reactions to cases online, going overboard with constant updates, or posting photos of questionable taste. Consider the plight of opposing counsel, she says. "If the other lawyer has this crazy Facebook account, you may wonder, 'How am I going to negotiate with this person?'"

---