Talk given to the Canadian Bar Association on June 25, 2014

1. Speakers:
Omar Ha-Redeye, Fleet Street Law
Lisa Stam, Koldorf Stam LLP
Leveraging Social Media in
Your Practice
June 25th, 2014
CBA
L.@.W.
SERIES

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Co-Presenters:
Omar Ha-Redeye, Lawyer
Fleet Street Law
Lisa Stam, Partner
Koldorf Stam LLP

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Outline of Presentation
 Introduction
 WHY Incorporate Social Media into Practice?
 HOW to Incorporate Social Media into Practice?
 Conclusion
 Questions?

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WHY Incorporate Social Media into Your Practice?
Four Main Focuses of Social Media
 Client Development
 Professional Responsibilities to Educate the Public
 Reputation Management
 Your Professional Development

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1. Client Development
Client Development
 Word of mouth has always been the main source of referrals
• Not enough, you want to remain at the top of the mind
 To be on the top of the mind of your target market you must be memorable
• Cannot be memorable without being noticed
 Economic challenges have increased competition, including in law
• Must differentiate ourselves to remain relevant
• Being a great lawyer isn’t enough in today’s market
 Level Playing Field – the new world of online opportunity
• Clients are looking for relevant and practical expertise, not just an established firm

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1. Client Development (cont’d)
Client Development (cont’d)
 How to do this?
• Seek out and identify opportunities in workplace, among friends,
acquaintances and networks
• Speaking and writing opportunities help disseminate to broader audience
• Leadership positions in organizations creates great visibility
• Community service creates bonds with like‐minded people
• Show your personality; be real and authentic
• Social Media!!

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1. Client Development (cont’d)
Some Social Media Sites
 Facebook
 Twitter
 LinkedIn
 Instagram
 Tumblr

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1. Client Development (cont’d)
 Blogs,
 Blogs, and
 Blogs:
 Build an online body of expertise
 Platform doesn’t matter (WordPress, LexBlog, firm website blogs, etc.)
 Be Google-able for your expertise

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1. Client Development (cont’d)
 Smartphones allow for constant connectivity to Social Media
 Constant connectivity to you
 Social Media is NOT just for the young
Image(s):
http://www.inventionmachine.com/Portals/56687/images/SocialMediaConnect.jpg
http://socialmediatoday.com/sites/socialmediatoday.com/files/imagepicker/219241/social-media-best-practices.jpg

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1. Client Development (cont’d)
Source: http://www.inc.com/news/articles/2010/08/users-over-50-are-fastest-growing-social-media-demographic.html

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1. Client Development (cont’d)
NO ONE USES THE YELLOW PAGES ANYMORE.
Image: http://www.chrishiggins.in/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/remember-yellow-pages.jpg

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2. Professional Responsibility
Ha-Redeye, Omar and Tarantino, Bob, Overview: The Rules of Professional Conduct and
Their Application to the Legal Profession Online (and Off) (March 1, 2012). Internet and
E-Commerce Law in Canada, Vol. 12, No. 11, March 2012. Available at SSRN:
http://ssrn.com/abstract=2140435
Professional Responsibility
 As Legal Professionals, we have a duty
to educate the public
 Rule 6.01 of Ontario’s Rules of
Professional Conduct
 Rule 2.1-1 and 2.1-2 of the Model
Code of Professional Conduct
 Integrity of the profession requires
education of the public

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2. Professional Responsibility (cont’d)
 Online civility is of utmost importance
 Consider Rule 4.01(6) of Ontario’s Rules of Professional Conduct and Rule 7.2-1 of
the Model Code of Professional Conduct.
 Must avoid flaming

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2. Professional Responsibility (cont’d)
Other Rules to be vigilant of:
 All rules relating to marketing under Rule 3.02 of the Ontario Rules of Professional
Conduct and Rule 4.2-1 of the Model Code of Professional Conduct
 A lawyer may market professional services, provided that the marketing is:
• (a) demonstrably true, accurate and verifiable;
• (b) neither misleading, confusing or deceptive, nor likely to mislead, confuse or deceive;
• (c) in the best interests of the public and consistent with a high standard of professionalism.
 Definition of competence under Rule 2.01 (1)(k) of the Ontario Rules of
Professional Conduct and 3.1-1(k) of the Model Code of Professional Conduct
 “competent lawyer” means a lawyer who has and applies relevant skills,
attributes, and values in a manner appropriate to each matter undertaken on
behalf of a client including …
• (k) adapting to changing professional requirements, standards, techniques, and practices.

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2. Professional Responsibility (cont’d)
 Consider also including a policy on social media usage in your employee handbook.
Source: http://www.intersectionconsulting.com/2010/social-media-overlap/

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3. Reputation Management
Reputation Management
 You must be in control of your reputation online
 Key danger with no online presence are rating sites
 Your online reputation can be a game changer – a real opportunity or a disaster

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3. Reputation Management (cont’d)
Source: http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/lawyerratingzcom/internet/lawyerratingzcom-Their-reports-are-not-honest-they-selectively-edit-out-reports-Interne-1052236

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3. Reputation Management (cont’d)
 With no online presence, there is no counter balance to disgruntled clients.
 Judges are especially vulnerable to disgruntled online commentary.
 Its impact can last for years.

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3. Reputation Management (cont’d)
Google Search 2011

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3. Reputation Management (cont’d)
Google Search 2014

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3. Reputation Management (cont’d)
Opportunities through good reputation management:
 Develop expertise
 Develop practice you want, not just what your firm provides
 Raise profile with media, conference organizers, industry leaders, and other
online amplifiers

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4. Your Professional Development
Your Professional Development:
 Stay on top of current legal developments
 Join online conversations of case law and legal issues (or at least listen to
those that really get into it)
 Learn from your peers

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HOW to Incorporate Social Media into Your Practice
How to Incorporate Social Media into your practice:
 No, you do not need to be on Facebook five hours a day;
 No, you do not need to create a huge marketing department;
 No, you do not need to be particularly clever, witty or eloquent (although a bit
of humour and/or modesty doesn’t hurt)

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HOW to Incorporate Social Media into Your Practice (cont’d)
 HOW:
 Find time savers:
• Do spend the time to set up an infrastructure that will in part take care of
itself
• Use tools that curate info for you, and that filter out the noise:
– e.g. RSS feeders, TweetDeck, Hootsuite, Flipboard, etc.
– Set up lists and groups in your feeds
– Use scheduled tweets, posts, etc.

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HOW to Incorporate Social Media into Your Practice (cont’d)
 HOW:
 Find time savers (cont’d):
• Delegate what you can, but don’t ghost write everything
• Focus on your area, not everything out there
• You don’t have extra time - and neither do your peers and clients, so keep
it concise and brief

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HOW to Incorporate Social Media into Your Practice (cont’d)
How to be good at social media:
 Listen to others first
 Go where the conversations are
 Collaborate and share info
 Be professional, but don’t take yourself so seriously
 Focus on expertise, not just volume of activity

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Conclusion
 Social Media is an inevitability of modern legal practice.
 Lawyers have a responsibility to learn how to use it properly.
 However, we must be aware of pitfalls and limitations to this emerging form of
communication
 BUT – there are so many opportunities – jump in and participate or let the
opportunities pass you by…

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Questions?
 Do people take law societies seriously on social media?
 How involved should law societies be with social media?
 Should we even care about how lawyers behave on social media?
 Should law societies regulate social media behaviour?
 If so, what would be appropriate remedies?
Microsoft ClipArt

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