The document summarizes a presentation on leveraging social media in legal practice. It discusses four main reasons to incorporate social media: client development, professional responsibility to educate the public, reputation management, and professional development. It provides tips on how to use social media for client development, how to comply with professional responsibility rules, how to manage one's online reputation, and how social media can aid professional development. The presentation concludes by taking questions from the audience.

1. Speakers:
Omar Ha-Redeye, Fleet Street Law
Lisa Stam, Koldorf Stam LLP
Leveraging Social Media in
Your Practice
June 25th, 2014
CBA
L.@.W.
SERIES

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Co-Presenters:
Omar Ha-Redeye, Lawyer
Fleet Street Law
Lisa Stam, Partner
Koldorf Stam LLP

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Outline of Presentation
 Introduction
 WHY Incorporate Social Media into Practice?
 HOW to Incorporate Social Media into Practice?
 Conclusion
 Questions?

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WHY Incorporate Social Media into Your Practice?
Four Main Focuses of Social Media
 Client Development
 Professional Responsibilities to Educate the Public
 Reputation Management
 Your Professional Development

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1. Client Development
Client Development
 Word of mouth has always been the main source of referrals
• Not enough, you want to remain at the top of the mind
 To be on the top of the mind of your target market you must be memorable
• Cannot be memorable without being noticed
 Economic challenges have increased competition, including in law
• Must differentiate ourselves to remain relevant
• Being a great lawyer isn’t enough in today’s market
 Level Playing Field – the new world of online opportunity
• Clients are looking for relevant and practical expertise, not just an established firm

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1. Client Development (cont’d)
Client Development (cont’d)
 How to do this?
• Seek out and identify opportunities in workplace, among friends,
acquaintances and networks
• Speaking and writing opportunities help disseminate to broader audience
• Leadership positions in organizations creates great visibility
• Community service creates bonds with like‐minded people
• Show your personality; be real and authentic
• Social Media!!

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1. Client Development (cont’d)
Some Social Media Sites
 Facebook
 Twitter
 LinkedIn
 Instagram
 Tumblr

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1. Client Development (cont’d)
 Blogs,
 Blogs, and
 Blogs:
 Build an online body of expertise
 Platform doesn’t matter (WordPress, LexBlog, firm website blogs, etc.)
 Be Google-able for your expertise

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1. Client Development (cont’d)
 Smartphones allow for constant connectivity to Social Media
 Constant connectivity to you
 Social Media is NOT just for the young
Image(s):
http://www.inventionmachine.com/Portals/56687/images/SocialMediaConnect.jpg
http://socialmediatoday.com/sites/socialmediatoday.com/files/imagepicker/219241/social-media-best-practices.jpg

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1. Client Development (cont’d)
Source: http://www.inc.com/news/articles/2010/08/users-over-50-are-fastest-growing-social-media-demographic.html

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1. Client Development (cont’d)
NO ONE USES THE YELLOW PAGES ANYMORE.
Image: http://www.chrishiggins.in/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/remember-yellow-pages.jpg

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2. Professional Responsibility
Ha-Redeye, Omar and Tarantino, Bob, Overview: The Rules of Professional Conduct and
Their Application to the Legal Profession Online (and Off) (March 1, 2012). Internet and
E-Commerce Law in Canada, Vol. 12, No. 11, March 2012. Available at SSRN:
http://ssrn.com/abstract=2140435
Professional Responsibility
 As Legal Professionals, we have a duty
to educate the public
 Rule 6.01 of Ontario’s Rules of
Professional Conduct
 Rule 2.1-1 and 2.1-2 of the Model
Code of Professional Conduct
 Integrity of the profession requires
education of the public

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2. Professional Responsibility (cont’d)
 Online civility is of utmost importance
 Consider Rule 4.01(6) of Ontario’s Rules of Professional Conduct and Rule 7.2-1 of
the Model Code of Professional Conduct.
 Must avoid flaming

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2. Professional Responsibility (cont’d)
Other Rules to be vigilant of:
 All rules relating to marketing under Rule 3.02 of the Ontario Rules of Professional
Conduct and Rule 4.2-1 of the Model Code of Professional Conduct
 A lawyer may market professional services, provided that the marketing is:
• (a) demonstrably true, accurate and verifiable;
• (b) neither misleading, confusing or deceptive, nor likely to mislead, confuse or deceive;
• (c) in the best interests of the public and consistent with a high standard of professionalism.
 Definition of competence under Rule 2.01 (1)(k) of the Ontario Rules of
Professional Conduct and 3.1-1(k) of the Model Code of Professional Conduct
 “competent lawyer” means a lawyer who has and applies relevant skills,
attributes, and values in a manner appropriate to each matter undertaken on
behalf of a client including …
• (k) adapting to changing professional requirements, standards, techniques, and practices.

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2. Professional Responsibility (cont’d)
 Consider also including a policy on social media usage in your employee handbook.
Source: http://www.intersectionconsulting.com/2010/social-media-overlap/

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3. Reputation Management
Reputation Management
 You must be in control of your reputation online
 Key danger with no online presence are rating sites
 Your online reputation can be a game changer – a real opportunity or a disaster

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3. Reputation Management (cont’d)
Source: http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/lawyerratingzcom/internet/lawyerratingzcom-Their-reports-are-not-honest-they-selectively-edit-out-reports-Interne-1052236

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3. Reputation Management (cont’d)
 With no online presence, there is no counter balance to disgruntled clients.
 Judges are especially vulnerable to disgruntled online commentary.
 Its impact can last for years.

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3. Reputation Management (cont’d)
Google Search 2011

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3. Reputation Management (cont’d)
Google Search 2014

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3. Reputation Management (cont’d)
Opportunities through good reputation management:
 Develop expertise
 Develop practice you want, not just what your firm provides
 Raise profile with media, conference organizers, industry leaders, and other
online amplifiers

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4. Your Professional Development
Your Professional Development:
 Stay on top of current legal developments
 Join online conversations of case law and legal issues (or at least listen to
those that really get into it)
 Learn from your peers

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HOW to Incorporate Social Media into Your Practice
How to Incorporate Social Media into your practice:
 No, you do not need to be on Facebook five hours a day;
 No, you do not need to create a huge marketing department;
 No, you do not need to be particularly clever, witty or eloquent (although a bit
of humour and/or modesty doesn’t hurt)

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HOW to Incorporate Social Media into Your Practice (cont’d)
 HOW:
 Find time savers:
• Do spend the time to set up an infrastructure that will in part take care of
itself
• Use tools that curate info for you, and that filter out the noise:
– e.g. RSS feeders, TweetDeck, Hootsuite, Flipboard, etc.
– Set up lists and groups in your feeds
– Use scheduled tweets, posts, etc.

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HOW to Incorporate Social Media into Your Practice (cont’d)
 HOW:
 Find time savers (cont’d):
• Delegate what you can, but don’t ghost write everything
• Focus on your area, not everything out there
• You don’t have extra time - and neither do your peers and clients, so keep
it concise and brief

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HOW to Incorporate Social Media into Your Practice (cont’d)
How to be good at social media:
 Listen to others first
 Go where the conversations are
 Collaborate and share info
 Be professional, but don’t take yourself so seriously
 Focus on expertise, not just volume of activity

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Conclusion
 Social Media is an inevitability of modern legal practice.
 Lawyers have a responsibility to learn how to use it properly.
 However, we must be aware of pitfalls and limitations to this emerging form of
communication
 BUT – there are so many opportunities – jump in and participate or let the
opportunities pass you by…

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Questions?
 Do people take law societies seriously on social media?
 How involved should law societies be with social media?
 Should we even care about how lawyers behave on social media?
 Should law societies regulate social media behaviour?
 If so, what would be appropriate remedies?
Microsoft ClipArt

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