When lawyers get social

It won’t surprise anyone to learn that I am a big fan of social media. I’ve been singing the praises of Twitter, LinkedIn and some of the many pretenders that have joined the booming marketplace over the past ten years or so. The ever-increasing number of smartphones and tablets has made mobile communication the norm, not the exception.

But verbal communication seems to be one of the victims of social media’s fortune, and lawyers are no different. Each of us will now sends dozens of emails a day, hundreds a week and many thousands each year, but it wasn’t always this
way. Our reliance on email comes down, in part,
to the reassurance provided by a permanent,
if intangible, record of advice, opinion and fact checking. It has taken us some time to get here, but just as we were catching up with the rest of the world, along came social media.

Facebook was where it started for many people. Launched in 2004, initially to a small university membership, it has now expanded to take in 1.3 billion monthly users worldwide, the vast majority of whom access the service on a mobile device. Facebook provides a valuable function to many,
a place to save and share photos, memories, life moments and thoughts. It is also home to the infamous ‘like’ button, which people click
4.5 billion times a day.

Unsatisfied with its position in our personal lives, Facebook is now bringing itself to our professional lives. ‘Facebook for Work’ will allow us to chat with our colleagues online, connect with professional contacts and collaborate on documents. When it launches, it will be a serious competitor to the long-established LinkedIn, the ‘work friendly’ networking service, which, for many, acts as an online Rolodex of business contacts and go-to CV store for recruiters and job searches worldwide. With 54 per cent of businesses reportedly blocking access to Facebook through office computers, LinkedIn is likely to be unchallenged for the time being, but it cannot afford to rest on its laurels.

Add to these the other well-known and over-used services provided by Twitter (micro-blogging), Instagram (photos), WhatsApp (instant mobile messaging), YouTube (video), Snapchat (disappearing photo messaging), Pinterest (online pinboard) and Skype (video chat), and all bases are pretty much covered, aren’t they? No, not according to Manchester barrister and head
of Exchange Chambers, Bill Braithwaite QC.

Mootis

In January, a new, free-to-join social media network launched with the ambition of bringing positive communication back to lawyers. Much like the poorly received Google+, which has been around since 2011, Mootis aims to bring together what its founder considers the best of the established social networks, acknowledging that lawyers in particular are ‘not entirely comfortable’ with what is out there at the moment. It allows users to not only type out their thoughts in ‘moots’ of up to 500 words, but also share videos, blogs, documents, images and audio recordings, and connect with existing contacts or make new ones. There is the opportunity to create polls and surveys. It has also borrowed some ‘best bits’ from other services, including hashtags and trending topics usually associated with Twitter and ‘who’s viewed your profile’ alerts, as with LinkedIn.

Mootis is aimed squarely at lawyers. Is this as ridiculous an idea as it sounds? Not according to Braithwaite, who believes that the legal profession is big enough to have its own bespoke social media service: “There are over 350,000 people working in legal services in the UK alone and the law impacts on the lives of millions of people every day. Communication is at the heart of the new site. I can’t see any reason why the legal profession should be different from the rest of the world in relation to social media.”

The problem is that the legal profession is different. In my experience, one of the main reasons why lawyers shy away from the multitude of social media platforms already available is the fear of doing something wrong. That might mean something silly, such as an embarrassing spelling mistake, or something more serious, such as an unintentional breach of client confidentiality. Who you can and should speak to, what you can say and how you say it are all genuine worries to those unpractised and unfamiliar with the social media world.

Allowing posts of up to 500 words on any topic may free the mind, but it will also free the fingers. Lawyers aren’t known for their brevity in making a point or arguing a cause, and limiting us to the 140 characters permitted by Twitter can prove difficult for many. What’s more, encouraging a distinct legal bent to posts should limit the ‘clutter’ so prevalent on Facebook. But by limiting the content and the membership, is there a risk that Mootis will quickly become a place for overinflated egos, dominant personalities and self-satisfied posts that take up much more of your daily feed than those limited to two lines?

Everything in moderation

Mootis allows users to build a virtual network
of legal contacts, identifiable not only by their personally selected mug shot, but also by their academic and employer details. So far, many
of the thousands already on board seem to have
no problem sharing their employment details.
Why should they? Well, much criticism has been levelled at LinkedIn for being hijacked by recruiters and advertisers. How will Mootis address this?

“That is something we will need to keep an eye on and assess,” says Braithwaite. ”We are not going to start dictating who can and can’t join, but the most important people on the site are the lawyers and if there is a consensus of opinion we’ll act on it. Students and journalists are very welcome on the site and bring a lot to it. It really is for anyone who is interested in law.”

Just for swots?

There is already some competition in the race
to become a lawyer’s go-to social media tool. LawSwot was launched last September by Niamh Parker, who envisaged an academic social network for students to get help and support in their studies and ask syllabus-specific questions of their peers, not just at home, but globally.

Her dreams came while she was a frustrated first-year law student at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Having entered the National University of Ireland Entrepreneur competition in 2013, she won third place and €500 towards a dummy platform to test out her proposition. “This was a fantastic experience as it really helped me narrow down my offering or minimal viable product,” says Parker. It was lucky for her that the judging panel included top legal and business professionals from McCann Fitzgerald’s Law Firm, FR Kelly Intellectual property experts and the Bank of Ireland, which also provided advice and guidance in the formative stages.

It was important for Parker to recognise that with so much choice out there, you ‘can’t be all things to all people online.’ LawSwot is aimed, therefore, at students and graduates, but has huge ambition. “We aim to be a global brand name for students with outstanding talent (SWOT),” says Parker, and the service this year will be expanded to include TechSwot and EngSwot. But the tool isn’t simply an easy way to academic qualification.

As a result of the initiative, the social network has developed into a tool for employers, too. “We now have a community for employers to access. This is a place for employers to track talent. My eureka moment when developing LawSwot was when I asked: How will the top firms know about Niamh Parker if she never applies for a position at their firm? Now top firms can track top talent from the moment they enter their undergraduate degree,” explains Parker. A profile link to each member provides an opportunity for students to showcase their best work in their training applications.
“In short, the more employers engage on the platform, the more students will compete for their attention and be visible to them from fresher’s week, not in final year when the top talent have applied to their competitor.”

Tools of the trade

This social media chatter is all well and good, but does it actually help us in our working lives? I can certainly see some reason to access the thoughts and opinions of other lawyers without the need to actively engage in the conversation, but I can’t help but think that this is already available to most lawyers – at least those who are office-based – from their colleagues. The fact that Mootis is a free service is certainly a significant attraction, but that in itself will come at a cost. Although Braithwaite does not anticipate advertising online in the near future, it is surely only a matter of time.

I can already see Mootis appealing more to students and those aspiring to a career in the law, rather than to those already in it. The ‘commercial awareness’ and networking skills that firms now demand of their junior employees could be only a click away with, perhaps, an untapped community of lawyers able to provide mentoring, work experience and access to opportunities otherwise restricted to the well-connected. This can soon become tiresome for established professionals who no longer seek a steer in the right direction from an instruction-hungry junior barrister.

For most solicitors using social media, the opportunity to engage with clients and potential clients is the underlying motive. As with most networking, the ultimate goal is to get business. For Peter Wright, free-to-use social media platforms provided a way to promote his firm alongside traditional marketing methods:
“I’ve used social media to build the brand of DigitalLawUK, providing a rich seam of content to users who may come across us or follow up after seeing a seminar or conference where we have spoken. Twitter had been a great way of building our profile overseas and has led to multiple enquiries from both the UK and abroad.” Wright has yet to test out what Mootis can offer, but is currently experimenting with what Facebook can offer his business: “The analytics for business users are great, so I can see that a post I put up on Friday has already been seen by 150 people”. Profile and visibility remain the goal for most commercial users of social media.

Where now?

Mootis will find it difficult to survive in a
digital world where there are already so many distractions competing for our time and attention. Hundreds of new social networks are launched each year, often with much celebration and significant financial backing. They launch, stumble along, attempting to challenge the Goliaths
of the social media world, and inevitably fall by
the wayside, rarely talked of and quickly forgotten. Even the biggest players in the market struggle to find their feet, with Google+ still seeking to deliver its full potential.

Braithwaite appears to have found a niche,
at least in part, with Mootis already gaining
traction in the fast-paced social media market.
Its membership already takes in many chambers, firms, alternative business structures, and legal journals as well as individual lawyers from across the spectrum of legal services.

One member, Mark Fagan, a student barrister, gave me his first impressions and raised the issue of confidentiality, a regular concern of many social networks users: “It is a good base for all lawyers either starting out on their career path, or those with many years’ experience, to share and discuss current legal issues. However, I have seen one instance of someone discussing a specific case they were advising on and asking for thoughts on their advice.”

How much of a draw Mootis is, and how long
it sticks around for, is yet to be seen. Braithwaite
and his team have many new features planned,
some of which will remain under wraps for now, but he is clear about the fact that Mootis will only succeed if people use it. For now, one thing seems certain: social media will only become more important to the practice of law and promotion of legal services in the coming years. Mootis may, on that basis, be here just at the right time. For me, Mootis is just another demand on my time and one which does not, at the moment, offer me anything I can’t find elsewhere. That said, I wish it luck and hope that its community grows in the way its founders hope – with or without those pesky recruiters. SJ

Kevin Poulter is editor at large of Solicitors Journal and heads the social media team at Bircham Dyson Bell

@kevinpoulter