Professionalism Issues for Lawyers as Employees and Employers Using Social Media
Author | Panel Discussion Moderated by Janice Rubin, with Panellists Ari Blicker, Stuart Rudner, and Lisa Stam |
Pages | 125-145 |
ProfessionalismIssuesforLawyers
as Employees and Employers
Using Social Media
PanelDiscussionModeratedbyJaniceRubin
withPanellistsAriBlickerStuartRudner
andLisaStam*
As part of the Special Lect ures we struck a panel to discuss profes-
sionalismi ssuesthat arise whenlawyers usesoc ialmedia themselves
Aswepreparedforthispanelwerealizedthatlawyerswearmanyhats
whenengaging in social mediaThey might beshari nglegal informa-
tiontheymight bepromotingthems elvesprofessionallyortheir rms
orthey mighteven beambassadorsfort heprofessionRegardless of
their funct ionit beca me clear to us that blogging posting v ideoson
YouTubeand connect ing with clients or colleagues on Linked In and
Facebookallpresentednewprofessionalismissues
Ourdiscussionprovidesasnapshotofwhatemploymentlawyers
werethin kingabouti nthespri ngofin termsof thechal lengesof
interactingwithsocia lmedia
A DAY L AW Y E R SU S E OF S O CI A L M E DI A
I NT H E W OR K P L AC E
Janice Weve come to the point in the proceedi ng where wear e go-
ingto discuss professionalism issuesThus farwe havetalked
JaniceRubinisapart nerinRubinThoml insonLLPaleadingemploymentlaw
rmAriBlickerisD irectorofStudentandAss ociateProgramsAi rdandBerlis
LLPStuartRudnerisapartnerwit hMillerThomsonLLPandi sfocusedonem-
ploymentlawLisaStamisanassoc iatelawyerwithBakerMcKen zieLLPanda
notedauthorityonsoc ialmedialegalissue s
JRABSRLS
aboutemployment lawyers reactions to other pe oples use of
social mediain theworkplaceW hatwear egoing todotoday
andtomorrowforaboutahalfa nhourisexamine ourownuse
ofsocial mediaas employmentlawyerseitheras employeesof
lawrmsorpeoplewhoemployothers
Thestatist icssuggestth atasa professionwehavew idely
embracedsocia lmedia AA mericanBar Association sur-
veyrevealed t hat percent of lawyers belong to at least one
onlinesocialnetworkWhilethisisAmericandataIwouldsus-
pectt hatit isreasonably accuratefor Canadian lawyersand I
suspectthatif wedidastrawpollherewewouldndthatvir-
tuallyeverybody herebelongsto atleast oneonline social net-
workThereare noless thant hirtyoneC anadianemployment
lawblogsincludingtwoauthoredbymycopanellistsLisaStam
and Stuart RudnerA casual search ofYouTubeoerings sug-
geststh atwel iketo makeourselvesknown aslawyers ont he
Internet Giventhis contextit is avery real professionali ssue
forustoconsider
Soweare goingtota lkaboutwhat thehotspots ofprofes-
sionalismareforuswheredowehavetobecarefulandwhether
thereare newopportunities forustocom municateaboutwhat
wedoandthevalueofit
Youknowwetypically lookatsocial mediaandt hinkoh
thereare so manylegal problemsbutasa professionshould
weconsiderwhethersocialmediaprovidesusan outletforcre-
ativeexpre ssion to evenen hance our image as professionals
andpe rhapseve nheight enour abilit ytopro videacc uratei nfor-
mationtothe publicTheseare thethi ngsthatweare goingto
talk abouttoday andtomor rowanda sIsayourfoc usforto day
is the employment relationship and how we engage the social
mediaasemploymentlawyersandaslawyersgenerally
I havespent a very enjoyable two days in my oce troll-
ingtheInternetlookingatblogsitesandYouTubevideostosee
whatIcould bringto thepanel andto aendeesas currentex-
amplesoflawyers interacting withsoc ialmedia This rstone
knocked my socks o I laughed the rst time I saw it and I
laughedthefour subsequenttimes Isawitsomet hingthat my
colleaguesatRubinT homlin soncanaesttogive nthehowli ng
theyheardfrommyoce
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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