lawyer Last weekend I was at The Nigerian Bar Association, Ibadan Oyo state Nigeria meeting. I had the privilege of speaking to lawyers, some of whom have being practicing for decades as well as young ones. Social media is affecting the dynamics of the way we all operate either as business owner, individual or professional.

Interestingly, the meeting was packed with many who want to know how social media will enhance their practice. I started out by trying to define what social media is and why legal professionals should take advantage of the plethora of online social sites to promote, communicate, and build new business, bond with their clients despite the ethical codes that most Nigerian lawyers say are against advertising.

I went ahead to discuss the time we are in and the necessity for change with the trend. I did maintain that growing numbers of professional networking sites, need for everyone to be where their clients are and the fact that people of all ages are now on the internet have provided an opportunity for lawyers to connect with their present, future clients. In the course of the talk, I also maintained that new and emerging social media trends are extremely important for lawyers.

Lawyers who ignore them do so to the detriment of their practice. I also recommended that depending on the size of the firm, there is a need for at least one staff member to be familiar with emerging Web 2.0 technologies and the ways in which those technologies can help and harm their bottom line. This conclusion is premised on my online research and personal observations.

 The reaction I got was pre-empted, given the fact that I knew that many people are avowed to change. Many of the old lawyers believed that law profession forbids advertisement, marketing of any form. I guess many of them are still confusing advertising with conversation, relationship building, personal branding, personal credibility building. As far as I am concerned, there is no such ethical codes that forbid individuals as well as law firm to have an interactive website, blogs, question and answer free legal advice forum that helps people (who may be potential clients) to understand the law better. All the identified platforms above will increase personal credibility, reputation building, business development, make establishment of solid mutual relationship easy.

While trying to establish these grounds, A senior member of the bar who is also a Senior Advocate of Nigeria of great repute Barr. Niyi Akintola stood up to give supporting evidence of how just having corporate website for his law firm where he showcases cases he had handled, won has increase his personal and professional credibility internationally. He cited examples of getting calls from abroad to handle some cases in Nigeria. At the end, many of the lawyers were convinced that it is high time they turned in and join the bandwagon to remain relevant.

The lessons I learnt at the end are: There is need to increase advocacy, awareness of professionals, business owners, professional bodies in the effective use of social/new media. For those of us ‘who know how’ to keep quiet is a great injustice, disservice to humanity. 2. People will resist change until they see an urgent need to do adapt.

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