Avvo

The fine folks over at the Avvo Blog are running a guest post I wrote recently about the thin line separating acceptable use of social media and the tendency among some lawyers to go overboard, and appear overbearing online. Though an impressive portion of the legal community has joined the online space through blogs and social media, many remain reluctant, fearing that the new forum could damage the legal profession, the way it has journalism, music, and film. Fortunately, lawyers can avoid this fate by following a few key guidelines.

Our friends over at Avvo, the social networking site for lawyers and non-lawyers in need of advice, launched a new blog today with the purpose of “exposing the law for non-lawyers in an engaging and informative way, so that people are thinking about, and can understand, the law even when they’re not in legal trouble.”

I’ve made it no secret in the past that I’m a big fan of the services Avvo provides, both for lawyers and non-lawyers. But I’m particularly excited about this new blog, dubbed NakedLaw, because it jives with my goal for the GJEL blog.

Last week, Avvo, the social media directory of attorney profiles that prospective clients can use to find the right fit, bought itself “a new suit.” Avvo CEO Mark Britton said the change was necessary, just like when he would periodically realize as an associate that it was time for some new clothes. “Maybe styles had changed a bit; maybe it was losing its shape; maybe I slept in it one too many times,” he wrote on the site’s blog. “Whatever the case, I would simply look at my aging suit and think, ‘Time for a new one.'”