The Practice Corner: What I Have Learned About Social Media (Some of It the Hard Way)

by Daniel DeWoskin
Trial Attorney
www.atlantatrial.com

Like all attorneys who live somewhere other than underneath a large rock, I have seen many of the benefits and detriments that social media can bring to a legal practice. There are countless articles on how we as lawyers can engage social media to market and network with others in our own communities and beyond. There are also articles advising us on properly counseling our clients as to the recommended use or refrain from use of social media while cases, both civil and criminal, are pending. It is my hope that this article presents at least some new thoughts on the topic, but if they were all that new, I would likely be better off just posting them on Facebook.

This week, the Fulton County Daily Report featured an article about a young plaintiff in an automobile collision case whose verdict was almost certainly negatively impacted by her posts on social media sites. These posts undermined her claims of pain and featured her in a less than wholesome light. Plaintiffs’ lawyers in personal injury cases, myself included, go to great lengths to explain these types of consequences to our clients as we plead with them to avoid using social media during litigation, but we might have just as well asked many of them to stop eating or breathing.

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From the President: Let Us Honor the Trailblazers

by Denise VanLanduyt
President, DeKalb Bar Association

Belle Babb Mansfield was the first woman admitted to a state bar in the United States. She was formally admitted to the Iowa State Bar in June 1869 after the Iowa court’s favorable ruling allowing her to practice law.

In 1872, Myra Bradwell filed a petition with the U. S. Supreme Court to appeal the decision of the Illinois Supreme Court that denied her admission to the state bar after passing the bar exam in 1872. She was not successful. Bradwell v. Illinois, 84 U. S. (16 Wall.) 130 (1873).

In 1893, Belva A. Lockwood, a trained attorney, was the first woman admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court. She filed suit in this same court to force the Commonwealth of Virginia to admit her to the state bar. Stating its precedent in the Bradwell case, the U.S. Supreme Court “denied leave” to bring her argument again, citing that the states had the right to control and regulate the practice of law.

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