Ethical Issues and Implications on Lawyers’ Use of LinkedIn

Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have become part of every lawyer’s daily life, and they can be helpful tools for expanding your professional presence and marketing your practice, as well as valuable investigative tools. But the same ethical rules that govern lawyers’ conduct also apply to their use of social media, and that can raise some concerns for lawyers in their use of these tools.

This webinar will focus on the ethical use of LinkedIn as a marketing and professional development tool, but will also touch on broader ethical pitfalls in lawyers’ use of social media in general, both for marketing purposes and as a litigation tool, discussing some of the rules and opinions that apply. Some of these issues are:

• Is your LinkedIn Profile Advertising?
• Staying away from false or misleading statements
• Do you need a disclaimer on your LinkedIn profiles?
• How do the solicitation rules apply to LinkedIn?
• Do the “specialties” and “Skills and Endorsements” sections of LinkedIn raise ethical problems?
• Should I ask for client recommendations on LinkedIn?
• Confidentiality issues - what you can and cannot say about clients and cases on LinkedIn and how to communicate ethically with potential clients
• Unauthorized practice of law and inadvertent attorney-client relationships
• Who lawyers can and should connect to on social media