Linking Lawyers

If you want to find out just how popular online social networks have become in the legal profession, check in with Vickie Spang, the Los Angeles?based chief marketing officer at Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton.

Spang says lawyers at her firm were getting so many requests to join various networks?some devoted exclusively to lawyers?that the firm thought it needed to take a position. So Sheppard Mullin considered the various options and suggested that any partners or associates interested in online social networking start with LinkedIn.com, a business-oriented site based in Mountain View that is home to some 45 million members.

However, the Sheppard Mullin attorneys are hardly the only lawyers listed on LinkedIn. The site boasts nearly 400,000 self-proclaimed attorneys, and by one estimate LinkedIn may have as many as 840,000 lawyer profiles.

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