Kevin O'Keefe - The Perils of being a Law Firm/Lawyer/Law Student social media holdout

Kevin O'Keefe, attorney and head of LexBlog, spelt it out in plain English why lawyers not only should be on social media, but why they can't afford to not be on social media:

"How do you appear, as a lawyer or law firm, if you fail to embrace the methods other businesses are using to network, nurture relationships, and build reputations? Not only are you making it difficult for those whom you’d like to do business with to connect with you, but you are also looking old and behind the times.

If every lawyer in your law firm lost their cell phone today, you’d have them replaced by tomorrow, no questions asked. I’d act with the same sense of urgency in getting your lawyers using social. It’s just as important for long term success as a cell phone."

Pat Ellis of Michigan State School of law responded with a slant on how it is for law students, he said: 

"This idea applies with equal weight to law students. Sure, we don’t have to worry about being the “go to” lawyer (yet), but we must be tuned in to what is happening in our industry; now more than ever. Ultimately, students need to assess their own situation and the opportunity-cost of forsaking social media and blogs. For me, the cost is too high and it is a risk I am not willing to take."

Kevin O'Keefe responded here:

"Powerful position. The cost of forsaking social media and blogs is too high, a risk this law student is not willing to take."

In order, here, here and here. My previous post on the low uptake of career-minded social media use among students is here.

Law Students Aren't Using the Web with their Career in Mind

In the words of Richard Susskind we all know that "most lawyers are pathologically late adopters of IT." Though it will come. It'll just take a little longer. Susskind again:

"Despite promising, early successes, until the worth of an emerging technology is proven beyond reasonable doubt it will not generally be embraced by the legal world."

Anyway, how are the young generation of law students, tomorrow's lawyers doing? As a part-time university lecturer Brian inkster has a genuine insight. Back in January 2011 Brian Inkster ran a straw poll: during a lecture to over 150 law students he asked them a number of questions regarding their web presence. Here's what he found:

"Of the 165 students it transpired that nearly all of them were on Facebook but only 4 on Twitter, 7 on LinkedIn, 1 on Quora and 2 had their own blog/website."