I’m told that some law firms severely restrict their lawyers’ use of social media. Apparently, they don’t trust them to be judicious about the information they share or the image they portray.

Is this warranted? Or an outdated (and silly) notion that should be dragged to the guillotine and have its head lopped off?

Lawyers can police themselves, can’t they? Doesn’t every lawyer care about how their public utterances might be received?

Apparently not, as Nancy Myrland makes plain about the likes of Michael Avenatti, et al.

But that’s not the fault of social media, is it? You can do as much damage in a blog post as you can on Twitter or TV, or at a party with an open bar.

So when it comes to social media, if you are looking to establish a policy for the lawyers who work for you, may I suggest, “Trust but verify”?

Train your people. And hold them accountable if they violate your policy or basic common sense.

Yes?

Anyway, instead of prior restraint, shouldn’t the discussion be about how to get a good return on the social media investment, since it’s clear that many attorneys don’t?

Unfortunately, you’ll have to count me out of that discussion. I know just enough about social media to stay out of jail, and I’m not really interested in learning more.

It’s not my thing.

And I’ve got other things that work well for me, don’t take a lot of time, and don’t make me take pictures of my lunch.

I get most of my work from referrals and email