Watch Yourself on Social Media

• Author: Lindsay Sestile
• Pages: 18-19

Watch

Yourself on

Social Media

Lawyers should think twice before posting to social media.

Reviewing a disciplinary matter before the South Carolina

Supreme Court for Legal Ethics in Motion, Jan Jacobowitz notes a lawyer received a

six-month suspension based on 12 oensive Facebook posts. The court found all 12 state-

ments troubling but focused on two posts—one on tattoos and the other on George

Floyd’s death—that it found expressly incendiary and inciting gender- and race-based

conf‌lict. The court determined the lawyer had brought disrepute upon the legal pro-

fession and violated the spirit and law of South Carolina’s Lawyer’s Oath. According to

Jacobowitz, lawyers and judges continue to get into hot water for their social media

posts, even over matters in which they have no direct involvement. She advises: “Take

a deep breath and consider the repercussion before you vent your opinions about so-

ciety’s ills, and absolutely stay away from commenting on your clients and cases in any

manner that reveals conf‌idential information.”

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Writing to Persuade

How do you write persua sive appellate briefs? Appellate

Advocacy Blog’s Adam Lam parello says the best writers

place themselve s in the shoes of the reader and write fo r that

audience. L amparello provides f‌ive writing tips to ma ximize

persuasiveness: (1) Use plain language—substitute esoteric or

unnecessary words and legalese for a simple and direct style.

(2) Be concise— get to the point immediately, identif ying the

controlling lega l issue, what you want, and why you shou ld

win. (3) Captu re the court’s attention by telling a n entertain-

ing story—La mparello suggests read ing Chief Justice John

Roberts’s bri ef in Alaska v. Environmental Protection Age ncy

for an example. (4) Confront th e weaknesses in your case and

explain why they do not a ect the requested outcome —avoid

losing credibil ity with the court by omitting unfavor able facts

or authority. And (5 ) don’t make “red f‌lag” mista kes—rookie

mistakes (e.g., spelling and grammatical errors, incorrect

citations, fai lure to follow local court rules , demeaning lower

court or advers aries, misrepresenting th e record) can irrepa-

rably damage you r credibility and the persu asiveness of your

brief. Ultimately, Lamp arello encourages lawyer s to use com-

mon sense to produ ce winning briefs because “ great writers

make great advocate s.”

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Published in Litigation News Volume 47, Number 1, Fall 2021. © 2021 by the Ameri can Bar Association. Re produced with per mission. All rights re served. This info rmation or any porti on thereof may not be c opied or disseminated in any f orm or

by any means or stored in an el ectronic database or r etrieval system w ithout the expre ss written cons ent of the American Bar A ssociation.

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