It’s just Google! Keeping jurors offline to stay in line

Attorneys, marketers hesitate to endorse LinkedIn endorsements

By Correy E. Stephenson
Published: April 10, 2013
Tags: Ethics, Social Media, Technology

Brian D. Wassom has never done work on mergers and acquisitions. But someone recently endorsed him for the skill on social networking site LinkedIn. A slip-up like that is part of the reason marketing expert Allison C. Shields, president of New York-based Legal Ease Consulting a legal practice management and marketing firm, is “on the [...]

Obtaining rights to ‘digital assets’

By Peter Vieth
Published: February 18, 2013
Tags: General Assembly, Social Media, Technology

The grieving parents of a teen who took his own life hit a roadblock in a search for clues to help them understand the family tragedy. A widow is stonewalled as she tries to manage her own bank accounts when her husband died unexpectedly. These and similar stories have prompted lawyers and lawmakers at the [...]

Litigation pitfalls and pratfalls

By Deborah Elkins
Published: December 10, 2012
Tags: Attorneys Fees, Civil Procedure, Discovery, Employment Discrimination, Fairfax County Circuit Court, Federal Courts, Law Firms, Legal Malpractice, Personal Injury, Real Estate, Richmond Circuit Court, Sanctions, Social Media, Supreme Court of Virginia News, Year in Review

Lawyers can find plenty of ways to stay out of a courtroom. Instead of the hand-to-hand combat of a trial before judge or jury, they can opt for some form of alternative dispute resolution. But the lure of the courtroom stays strong, for a whole class of litigators and for those who just enjoy stories [...]

Website must identify ‘John Doe’ posters

By Deborah Elkins
Published: December 3, 2012
Tags: Alexandria Circuit Court, Defamation, Judge James C. Clark, Social Media, Supreme Court of Virginia News

An Alexandria Circuit Court says a Virginia carpet cleaning business may subpoena information on persons who posted anonymous complaints about the business on Yelp.com, a California-based social networking site. The court said it would enforce a subpoena served by the Virginia business on Yelp’s registered agent in Virginia, asking for information about three “John Doe” [...]

High court hears record wrongful death appeal

By Deborah Elkins
Published: October 31, 2012
Tags: Albemarle County Circuit Court, Judge Edward Hogshire, Justice Cleo E. Powell, Justice Donald W. Lemons, Million-Dollar Verdicts, Sanctions, Social Media, Supreme Court of Virginia News

A man should not keep a jury award for his wife’s death when he and his lawyer conspired to remove photos from his Facebook page and then lied about it to the court, a defense lawyer told the Supreme Court of Virginia on Oct. 30. Probing for prejudice the defendant might have suffered, several justices [...]

Look before you tweet: Some best practices for Twitter

By Sarah Rodriguez
Published: September 6, 2012
Tags: Legal Marketing, Social Media, Technology

Twitter can be a powerful marketing tool for lawyers. It’s a convenient and quick way to connect with clients and to share news and information. But there are subtle ways your tweets might be undermining your efforts to promote your practice and use Twitter as part of your marketing mix. Many lawyers and law firms [...]

Social Media: To Link or not to Link

By Dolan Media Newswires
Published: August 23, 2012
Tags: Social Media, Technology

Should you accept a LinkedIn invitation from someone you don’t know? What about someone whose reputation is questionable? When people ask me questions about whether or not to “link,” they are usually not asking about the business benefits; they’re often concerned about the business and personal risks associated with accepting the invitations. Here are some [...]

Applicants don’t ‘like’ requests for social-media access

By Dolan Media Newswires
Published: July 23, 2012
Tags: Corporate Counsel, Social Media

Social media clearly has changed the way we interact with each other. We offer up-to-date commentary about the details of our lives with BlackBerries, iPhones, smart phones and other devices. And we can say what we want without fear of reprisal in the workplace because we limit access to that information to a select group [...]

Sharpen your blogging skills with easy tactics

By Dolan Media Newswires
Published: June 26, 2012
Tags: Legal Marketing, Social Media, Technology

Although a great deal of attention is directed toward social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others, even the newest tools have a tough time matching up to a now-classic online strategy: the blog. “Blogs are still very relevant for small businesses,” says Martha McCarthy, co-founder of the Social Lights, a Minneapolis-based firm specializing [...]