Tech Tips

• Jurisdiction: United States,Federal
• Citation: Vol. 38 No. 4 Pg. 68
• Publication year: 2015
• Pages: 68
• Year: 2015
• topic: Advertising Law,Business of Law

Tech Tips Vol. 38 No. 4 Pg. 68 Wyoming Bar Journal August, 2015

Blake A. Klinkner, President, Young Lawyers Section

Social Media and the Rules of Professional Conduct When is an Attorney’s Social Media Account Subject to the Advertising and Solicitation Rules?

It seems that historically, the legal profession has always been slow to keep up with trends in advertising. When I was in law school, I remember learning in my ethics and professionalism class that there was once a time when attorney advertising of any kind was frowned upon – attorneys who did advertise in the phone book or on billboards were generally seen by their peers as “cheapening” the legal profession. However, after a while, attorney advertising became acceptable and “legal services” became one of the largest sections in the yellow pages.

I was also told that when the Internet started to become a household staple, law firms were slow to embrace the World Wide Web as a new medium for advertising their services and that, again, advertising on the Internet was viewed by a considerable percentage of the bar as somehow being “unprofessional.” During a workshop hosted by the law school to teach soon-to-be graduates how to market their law firms, we were instructed that although it was now acceptable (and necessary) to have a website, it was not acceptable to use Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, or other social media pages to advertise because doing so would “cheapen” our image. However, like all things technological, the advice against using social media for attorney advertising had a short shelf-life, and more and more attorneys these days are turning to social media to market themselves, their firms, and their practices.

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