#Social #Media and the #Law – 5 Things You Need to Know

by Lisa C. Johnson, Esq.
Freelance writer 

There’s no doubt that we are living in the age of social media. You may remember a story last year of a woman very much focused on Facebook. The Guardian reportedthat she was so focused that she walked off a pier, fell into the water and was rescued while still clutching her phone. The moral of the story is to pay attention.

Various social media legal issues arise when website users share content online across different platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, Google+, Reddit, Wikipedia, personal blogs and more.

Social media laws relating to who owns the content being shared, when and where sharing is appropriate and what limits may be imposed on sharing often raise issues relating to trademark infringement, copyright infringement, social media marketing, labor relations and more.

Here are five tips that may keep you from finding yourself in trouble when it comes to different social media platforms.

1. Online Contests & Promotions: Look at the Terms of Service (TOS) or other similar guidelines posted by the platform that you are using. These are the rules to follow.Facebook has some very specific guidance. “Promotions may be administered on Pages or within apps on Facebook. Personal Timelines must not be used to administer promotions (ex: “share on your Timeline to enter” or “share on your friend's Timeline to get additional entries” is not permitted).”

2. Reviews: Sites like Yelp allow users to share their experiences and provide ratings for different businesses. Negative ratings can be harmful and some business owners may be wary of these review sites. However some may have pushed against the reviews a bit too hard by adding clauses into consumer contracts that would prevent their customers from making negative comments against them online. California recently passed a law protecting the rights of consumers to leave bad online reviews. An article in The Washington Post says, “The bill bans businesses from forcing consumers into contracts in which they waive their right to comment on the service they receive, and it also bars businesses from otherwise penalizing customers for such statements. It imposes fines of $2,500 for the first violation and $5,000 for each thereafter. If a violation was willful, intentional or reckless, an additional fine of $10,000 could be levied.”

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#Law schools are losing relevance — and how they’re trying to win it back!

Maheen Kaleem, a recent Georgetown University Law Center graduate, wants to practice public interest law but said she didn’t enter law school with blinders on about the job market. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

By Danielle Douglas-Gabriel April 20 at 9:03 PM  

Law schools across the country are facing their lowest enrollment numbers in years, causing some to slash their budgets and revamp their programs in an effort to attract students worried about finding a job in a diminished legal industry.

Nearly 46,000 people have applied so far to go to an accredited U.S. law school in the most recent admissions cycle, a figure that puts applications on track to hit just short of 53,000 total. By comparison, there were a total of 77,000 applicants in 2010 and 90,000 in 2004, according to the Law School Admission Council. Even top-ranked Harvard Law School witnessed a drop in applications before rebounding in the last two years.

Poor enrollment is hurting the bottom line at some schools. Washington and Lee’s School of Law said it plans to cut 12 positions, while Western Michigan University’s Thomas M. Cooley Law School delivered pink slips to more than half of its faculty and staff members last summer.

Going to law school used to feel like a no-brainer for college graduates seeking financial security. But that calculus has changed, with many firms that suffered during the recession still struggling to fully recover. Last month, Wiley Rein, one of the Washington area’s biggest law firms, cut 48 attorneys and staff members, an estimated 9 percent of its overall workforc

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#SEX Romp highlights gaps in #LAW !

By Annemarie Quill

2:00 PM Saturday Feb 7, 2015Add a comment

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People are missing from a plane crash in Taiwan. Isis released a horrific video showing its fighters burning alive a captured Jordanian pilot. Journalist Peter Greste was freed dramatically after 400 days in an Egyptian jail. Research scientists in the UK made a breakthrough which could mean the end of the common cold.

Do we care?

On Thursday, one of our digital reporters, Kiri Gillespie, pointed out the New Zealand Herald's most read top four stories of the week so far: 1. Wife sees office sex romp images on Facebook. 2. Office sex romp couple are no shows at work 3. Pam Corkery on the office sex romp: pub patrons took this way too far, shame on them. 4. Office sex romp couple will not be able to sue for breach of privacy.

Proving, Gillespie noted, the old adage of "sex sells" is alive and well.

When I checked yesterday, the sex romp was still the most read story, and made up four of the five top stories, with only a story about the America's Cup cheating probe turning readers' attention away.

The "office sex romp", as the story has been dubbed this week, surely needs no introduction. But for those who have been under anaesthetic this week, it concerns two Christchurch insurance workers who unwittingly put on a public sex show for patrons of a pub across the street from the glass-fronted office building after leaving the lights on.

They were cheered on by drinkers, the pub band even gave them a soundtrack (Kings of Leon's Sex on Fire). And my favourite line in the saga, from one of the punters,

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Michigan State #Law School is schooling law firms on #socialmedia

By Kevin O'Keefe on January 30, 2015 in Law School Blogs, Social Media Principles

I had the honor of participating in a wonderful program at Michigan State Law School on Friday afternoon.

A select group of law students had the opportunity to share how they were currently blogging and using social media for learning and career development. The students were from all classes, 1L to 3L, and used all forms of social media. 

The students were also participating in a social media contest to keep them motivated, to learn from each other and to inspire other law students not blogging or using social media to think about it. (Think about that contest idea law firms).

I shared some introductory comments on how to use social media for professional development, gave the students feedback on what they were doing, and participated in a vibrant discussion between audience members and the panelists. 

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What does #Twitter’s upcoming #video service mean for #lawyers?

By Kevin O'Keef

Twitter may be on the verge of launching a video publishing service. One, that some say could challenge Google’s YouTube.

In a story that’s been widely shared and discussed the last few days, Ingrid Lunden (@ingridlunden) of TechCrunch reported that details of Twitter’s video service were stumbled on by a Twitter user, curious about what might be at http://video.twitter.com.

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Beyond e-discovery legal process outsourcing (LPO) - risk, rewards and best practices

• Davis LLP
• Kelly Friedman
• Canada
• March 12 2014
• 

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LPO refers to the process of procuring legal services from an external provider. There is nothing new about outsourcing legal services – companies have been outsourcing legal services to external law firms for ages. So why all the recent discussion about LPO?

What is new is that, today, we see the outsourcing of legal services across the globe. Technology has enabled access to offshore, low-cost pools of labour and has allowed efficient disaggregation of routine legal work which can be performed by these low-cost pools of labour. A familiar form of offshore LPO is the e-discovery service provider, who might have teams of lawyers working in India or the Philippines to perform relevance review of a major document collection for production in Canadian litigation.

LPOs began to emerge in the past decade as global corporations starting offshoring work to captive centres with large pools of skilled, low-cost labour. We now see company-owned captive centres, captive centres of law firms, and third-party providers. Some LPOs are niche players and some provide many different kinds of services, including document review services, contract drafting, transaction due diligence and legal research and analysis. The major players also offer onshore and near-shore alternatives at different price points in additional to offshore services. For example, you might have a first-pass review of documents occurring in India, with a higher level quality control review being performed by more costly Canadian lawyers in the LPO provider’s Canadian office.

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#Legal AND #IT training required for #lawyers? Joining The #IT Crowd

Yasmin AndrewsConsultant at Legastat Ltd

Joining the IT Crowd legastat.co.uk

It must be said that when young would-be lawyers dream of their future in Chambers or at a top City firm, a lifetime more or less bolted to a PC or laptop screen is unlikely to feature large in their imagination.Last-minute dashes to court,...

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