Most professionals utilize a LinkedIn profile and/or a professional Facebook page. A large proportion of LinkedIn’s 150 million users are professionals; about 2% of which are attorneys. The proliferation of social media use by professionals has sparked debate regarding the collision between ethics and online marketing. This is particularly so because the standard, one-size-fits-all format available to social media users do not take into account that many professionals must adhere to state specific ethical rules when advertising. This gap has prompted some serious ethical concerns.
Take for example the recent ethics opinion issued by the New York State Bar Association’s Committee on Professional Ethics which determined that NY law firms cannot describe “specialties” on LinkedIn. The Committee was responding to an inquiry by a firm that created a LinkedIn profile and was prompted to fill out an “About” section that included a section labeled “Specialties”. The LinkedIn format permitted the law firm to list items under the label but could not alter the “Specialties” title. As a result, the law firm inquired whether it was ethical to use the “Specialties” section to describe the type of services it provided. The Committee ultimately determined it could not.
According to the opinion, New York’s ethics rules allow individual lawyers, but not law firms to advertise themselves as a certified “specialist.” Only appropriately certified lawyers may list specialties. Applying this rule, the opinion states that a law firm can still identify an area of practice on the site “[b]ut to list those areas under a heading of ‘Specialties’ would constitute a claim that the lawyer or law firm ‘is a specialist or specializes in a particular area of law’” which runs afoul of the state’s rules.
While social media websites have become popular marketing tools for professionals to showcase their businesses, the templates do not necessarily adhere to the professional rules applicable in each jurisdiction. The lesson from the foregoing decision is that professionals should be wary of the standard headings available on LinkedIn and other sites. Generally, professionals should err on the site of caution. If there are still questions, professionals should consider consultation with counsel or from the state’s professional authority before posting.