Professionalism Issues for Lawyers as Employees and Employers Using Social Media

AuthorPanel Discussion Moderated by Janice Rubin, with Panellists Ari Blicker, Stuart Rudner, and Lisa Stam
Pages125-145

ProfessionalismIssuesforLawyers
as Employees and Employers
Using Social Media
PanelDiscussionModeratedbyJaniceRubin
withPanellistsAriBlickerStuartRudner
andLisaStam*
As part of the Special Lect ures we struck a panel to discuss profes-
sionalismi ssuesthat arise whenlawyers usesoc ialmedia themselves
Aswepreparedforthispanelwerealizedthatlawyerswearmanyhats
whenengaging in social mediaThey might beshari nglegal informa-
tiontheymight bepromotingthems elvesprofessionallyortheir rms
orthey mighteven beambassadorsfort heprofessionRegardless of
their funct ionit beca me clear to us that blogging posting v ideoson
YouTubeand connect ing with clients or colleagues on Linked In and
Facebookallpresentednewprofessionalismissues
Ourdiscussionprovidesasnapshotofwhatemploymentlawyers
werethin kingabouti nthespri ngofin termsof thechal lengesof
interactingwithsocia lmedia
A DAY L AW Y E R SU S E OF S O CI A L M E DI A 
I NT H E W OR K P L AC E 
Janice Weve come to the point in the proceedi ng where wear e go-
ingto discuss professionalism issuesThus farwe havetalked
 JaniceRubinisapart nerinRubinThoml insonLLPaleadingemploymentlaw
rmAriBlickerisD irectorofStudentandAss ociateProgramsAi rdandBerlis
LLPStuartRudnerisapartnerwit hMillerThomsonLLPandi sfocusedonem-
ploymentlawLisaStamisanassoc iatelawyerwithBakerMcKen zieLLPanda
notedauthorityonsoc ialmedialegalissue s
JRABSRLS
aboutemployment lawyers reactions to other pe oples use of
social mediain theworkplaceW hatwear egoing todotoday
andtomorrowforaboutahalfa nhourisexamine ourownuse
ofsocial mediaas employmentlawyerseitheras employeesof
lawrmsorpeoplewhoemployothers
Thestatist icssuggestth atasa professionwehavew idely
embracedsocia lmedia AA mericanBar Association sur-
veyrevealed t hat percent of lawyers belong to at least one
onlinesocialnetworkWhilethisisAmericandataIwouldsus-
pectt hatit isreasonably accuratefor Canadian lawyersand I
suspectthatif wedidastrawpollherewewouldndthatvir-
tuallyeverybody herebelongsto atleast oneonline social net-
workThereare noless thant hirtyoneC anadianemployment
lawblogsincludingtwoauthoredbymycopanellistsLisaStam
and Stuart RudnerA casual search ofYouTubeoerings sug-
geststh atwel iketo makeourselvesknown aslawyers ont he
Internet Giventhis contextit is avery real professionali ssue
forustoconsider
Soweare goingtota lkaboutwhat thehotspots ofprofes-
sionalismareforuswheredowehavetobecarefulandwhether
thereare newopportunities forustocom municateaboutwhat
wedoandthevalueofit
Youknowwetypically lookatsocial mediaandt hinkoh
thereare so manylegal problemsbutasa professionshould
weconsiderwhethersocialmediaprovidesusan outletforcre-
ativeexpre ssion to evenen hance our image as professionals
andpe rhapseve nheight enour abilit ytopro videacc uratei nfor-
mationtothe publicTheseare thethi ngsthatweare goingto
talk abouttoday andtomor rowanda sIsayourfoc usforto day
is the employment relationship and how we engage the social
mediaasemploymentlawyersandaslawyersgenerally
I havespent a very enjoyable two days in my oce troll-
ingtheInternetlookingatblogsitesandYouTubevideostosee
whatIcould bringto thepanel andto aendeesas currentex-
amplesoflawyers interacting withsoc ialmedia This rstone
knocked my socks o I laughed the rst time I saw it and I
laughedthefour subsequenttimes Isawitsomet hingthat my
colleaguesatRubinT homlin soncanaesttogive nthehowli ng
theyheardfrommyoce
This is a local homegrown Toronto iteration of that old
chestnut The Holiday Party Skit by the very talented ar tic-

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