Welcome to my new blog about the dangers that exist in the hottest trends in the law. I’ll be talking almost exclusively about social networking for quite some time.

I’m not going to try to convince lawyers to get involved in social networking– that’s not what this is about. The only thing I’ll say about that is that a smart attorney will be involved in social networking, if only because you need to stay on top of the ever-changing technology– you don’t want to find yourself a few years from now huddled over your IBM Selectronic typewriter, clutching the receiver of your rotary telephone!

This blog is going to be about the pitfalls that lawyers face when using social networking and how they can be avoided. Hopefully I can point out where the landmines are located and provide a little direction about how to avoid setting them off. Plus, I’ll be blogging about the progress made by the ABA’s 20/20 commission as they try to update the ethics rules to accommodate this incredible new medium.

BTW, this blog will be a series of short posts, because I don’t have the patience to read long entries, no less write them. There’s a lot of info out there and I don’t want you to become water-blogged.

Here’s a little nugget I’ll throw out, just to start things off…

It’s easy for your client to blow the attorney client privilege by using social networking, so watch out! Remember, the attorney-client privilege is held by the client, but they can waive it. Most clients don’t realize that they can waive that privilege accidentally and that it can happen in social networking.

Think about how many times a client posts a blog entry where they rant about how upset they are when something unfortunate happens in the course of a lawsuit. They may also send out an angry Tweet, or comment about it on their Facebook page. That posting may contain information that the two of you have discussed like trial strategy and before they realize it they’ve blown the privilege. There’s gonna be trouble if your adversary is monitoring your client’s page throughout the litigation (which happens quite often these days and will be the subject of a blog post of it’s own).

My recommendation….tell your clients to keep their big laptops shut! They probably don’t understand the privilege and they need to be told that they should never blog about ongoing matters, or post comments on FB or other platforms where they tell the details about your conversations.