sites are no less dangerous to a practice if not advised and managed properly. A prudent new attorney would add to their representation agreements and initial client meeting checklist to advise clients, regardless of age or matter, that posts about their case on personal webpages may void the attorney-client privilege. It may also be worth a couple of minutes of a billable hour to scour a client’s personal websites to ensure confidentiality remains intact. It would certainly avoid an unpleasant surprise when a defense counsel quotes a medical malpractice client’s tweets in a letter responding to a settlement demand. What about an attorney’s ability to overshare? While almost all attorneys enjoy the opportunity to talk to a large audience about ourselves and our practice, posting too much or in too much detail may run afoul of Arkansas Rule of Professional Conduct 1.6 regarding confidentiality of information. A new attorney might ask exactly how much detail is too much? The Arkansas Bar Committee on Professional Conduct has yet to issue an opinion regarding an attorney’s breach of ARPC 1.6, but that doesn’t mean a young lawyer should test the limits of the rule. Posting in too much detail may also garner unwanted attention. For example, after one of my colleagues posted generally about filing several lawsuits in one day, he received a call from the local media asking if any of those lawsuits were newsworthy. Responding in the negative, he quickly deleted the statement and now merely posts pithy objective comments regarding his practice. If you need any further warning against posting more personal adventures and they may come back to haunt an attorney in their practice, please see a recent article published July 31, 2009 in the ABA Journal Law News Now. All of these oversharing considerations additionally apply to support staff as well. In small practices and smaller towns, it would not be unprecented for a secretary to write something disparaging regarding a difficult client and have the remarks find their way to the client. A current practice, regardless of size, would most likely benefit from a social media policy. For more information on such polices and the balance struck between business and social media, please go to 123 Social Media’s website. n 6
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