In the first post in the Social Media Primer for Lawyers series, we covered an overview of blogging and Facebook. In Part 2 we introduced LinkedIn and Twitter. In this Part 3 of the series, we’ll give an overview of several social media sites especially designed for lawyers.
5. Legal OnRamp www.LegalOnRamp.com
Legal OnRamp describes itself as “a Collaboration system for in-house counsel and invited outside lawyers and third party service providers.” Think of it as a LinkedIn for the legal industry. You can request an invitation to join Legal OnRamp from a link on the homepage, where you will be directed to complete and submit an application. Don’t hold your breath waiting for a response, however. It’s more effective to find someone you know who is a member of Legal OnRamp, and ask them to send you an invitation to join.
The site has a number of features that lawyers may find useful:
a) profiles of the members
b) display of several legal blogs
c) discussion groups
d) a section for posting news and updates
e) a collaborative wiki for posting templates, sample agreements and surveys
f) links to articles on Law.com and InsideCounsel
g) a rolling job posting display
While Legal OnRamp has only about 10,000 members, it has a concentration of in-house counsel, which makes it a valuable networking site for both inside and outside counsel. In May 2009, FMC Technologies announced that its RFP process for litigation counsel would be coordinated on Legal OnRamp, with all its responses to questions about the process being provided only in its discussion group created there.
6. Texas Bar Circle https://texasbar.affinitycircles.com/sbot/home
Texas Bar Circle is the social media network restricted to members of the State Bar of Texas. It also resembles LinkedIn. It contains discussion groups, job postings, event announcements and opportunities to connect with other Texas Bar members. Any user can start a discussion group, which can be open or restricted. Groups have formed based on practice areas, geographic regions, law schools and interests outside of law. Bar Circle members report that they appreciate the opportunity to ask questions of other lawyers, engage in professional discussions, share resources and develop relationships with lawyers they didn’t know before.
7. Martindale-Hubbell Connected www.martindale.com/connected
Martindale-Hubbell Connected is another LinkedIn-like social network targeted specifically for attorneys. In fact, there is a feature to allow you to see which of your LinkedIn connections are also members of Connected, so that you can invite them to join Connected. Any attorney can join for free, and other legal professionals are also permitted to join. It is not necessary to have a Martindale.com subscription. Martindale announced in September 2009 that Connected had achieved 15,000 members.
The site sports member profiles, blogs by members, affinity groups, discussion forums and legal news updates. There is a place to make announcements, as well. None of these features are very actively used as of this writing, at least by comparison to LinkedIn and other more established networks. A quick perusal of the attorneys in Houston, Texas on Connected in October 2009 revealed that the majority of them had 0 connections established. Some conferences are creating private groups for their participants to download documents and connect with each other on Connected.
8. AVVO
AVVO describes itself as a website to provide guidance to consumers in choosing a lawyer. AVVO compiles profile information and ratings of lawyers from state bar records, self-disclosure, peer reviews and client reviews. AVVO has its own formula for calculating its ratings, which range from 1 to 10. It also has
It also has how-to legal guides for consumers, and a question and answer section where lawyers answer consumer questions. Attorneys have the opportunity to showcase their expertise through posting guides and answering questions. AVVO also awards attorneys “levels” based on how active and helpful they are on the site.
AVVO is not really a networking site, but it is based on user-generated content. It does give lawyers a chance to connect with other lawyers by posting endorsements of them, and to interact with potential clients by answering questions. Lawyers should check their profiles to make sure they are aware of what clients and other lawyers may be saying about them.
The AVVO site and its rating system have been controversial. A number of commentators have criticized AVVO for giving poor ratings to prominent attorneys, and “no concern” ratings to lawyers who have been sanctioned by their bar association or convicted of a crime. It also has its proponents, who laud the free directory listing. It provides an inexpensive opportunity to establish an Internet presence to small firm attorneys, in contrast to the expensive directories like www.lawyers.com and www.findlaw.com.
9. JD Supra www.JDSupra.com
JD Supra is an online repository of legal documents, forms and articles. Why would you want to post anything there? Here are a few reasons:
a) Some lawyers who have posted articles have been contacted to write a similar article for a legal publication, garnering more publicity and name recognition.
b) JD Supra has an application that can make your publications come up in a list in your Facebook profile, thereby making it easier to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise to your Facebook connections.
c) JD Supra tweets about postings on Twitter in subject-specific newsfeeds. That enhances your reach to your target audience. JD Supra already has established followers in the relevant industries on Twitter, and they retweet what they like, to their network of followers.
d) JD Supra feeds articles into relevant LinkedIn interest groups, as well.
e) It helps to level the playing field, showcasing solo and small firm articles right along with those of the BigLaw firms. A number of BigLaw firms post their firm newsletters and alerts on JD Supra.
For more information about the benefits of JD Supra, Gina F. Rubel wrote a good article in The Legal Intelligencer Blog.
10. Lawlink www.LawLink.com
LawLink bills itself as “the first social network for the legal community.” The members are restricted to lawyers, law students, expert witnesses and law professionals. Members can post documents, like at JD Supra, and link to their blogs, similar to LinkedIn. They can also participate in discussion groups and post or answer questions, like on LinkedIn.
LawLink incentivises participation by giving points for posting documents, questions, answers, and other items. Members of LawLink are listed in order of their accumulated points. The home page showcases four “featured attorneys” for a month, who gain that honor by being the most prolific poster of the month.
The features are actually pretty nice on LawLink, but the participation is not very robust. At the time of this writing, lawyers looking for a social medium designed for lawyers would find more action at Legal OnRamp.
We have discussed the “Big 3” of social media networking: Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. We’ve also discussed social networking sites especially relating to lawyers. And yet there’s more. So much more. Keep watching for another post about social media sites attorneys may want to know about.
Debra L. Bruce is President of Lawyer-Coach LLC (www.lawyer-coach.com), a law practice management coaching and training firm. She practiced law for 18 years before becoming a professionally trained Executive Coach. She is a former Vice Chair of the Law Practice Management Committee of the State Bar of Texas, and past leader of Houston Coaches, Inc., the Houston Chapter of the International Coach Federation. She welcomes your comments below.
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