Social Media Law Student

Podcast Ipsa Loquitur: New Jury Rules, Legal Comedy Website, and Schools Spying on Students

Josh Camson — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 14:03:27 +0000

New Jury Rules
These are a model set of jury instructions to give jurors more specific guidelines on what they can and cannot do before and after a case.
The rules are nothing new. They are already told not to talk about the case, and these rules just make sure people don’t do it with a different medium. Huma thinks it’s important that jurors be told not to investigate the case on the Internet. Josh thinks this is all pretty obvious and people should know not to talk about cases, but agrees that googling things is the bigger issue.

New Comedy Website
Overheard in Court is Texts from Last Night for lawyers. They run the gamut for level of humor, but most are pretty fun. Huma thinks that the hilarity in the courtroom is under appreciated. Huma knows a lot about this because she apparently listens to oral argument recordings for fun. Josh tried doing it, but technical difficulties prevented him.

Schools Spying on Students
The Lower Merion school district gave its students laptops and then ~~spied on them hardcore~~ allegedly used those webcams to see what students were doing. Huma thinks this is unconstitutional, Josh thinks that constitutional or not, it’s just immoral! Gizmodo has more. It’s a good thing Huma’s school wasn’t looking at her, because apparently she looks at all sorts of crazy stuff on the Internet.

This week’s episode brought to you by Chrometa. E-mail sales[at]chrometa[dot]com and mention Podcast Ipsa Loquitur for a discount!

Podcast Ipsa Loquitur: Branding, Twitter Apathy, and Sexting

Josh Camson — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:31:45 +0000

Building Your Brand

-Should law students brand themselves?
-Some attorneys believe that the branding approach advocates online presence more than legal skills.
-Josh agrees. He understands that branding applies less to government service attorneys than it does to solo practitioners and other private attorneys. Nobody is suggesting that branding can replace quality legal abilities, even if your branding is silliness.
-Josh brands himself as “good in the courtroom.”
-Huma has noticed a dichotomous split on this issue. She thinks that people need legal skills and branding.
-Part of the split is because of the group of attorneys who believe that lawyers should not have an internet presence and keep it old school.
-Can social media actually score you a job?
-Well…maybe not, but Huma’s blog landed her an interview.

Twitter Apathy
-New Twitter study shows that people aren’t that into it.
-Josh describes the data to Huma, but everyone knows you should just look at the graphs.
-Why are less people on Twitter tweeting?
-Huma thinks it is the bandwagon, and people falling off. [Huma apologizes for the horrible sound problems here. Josh assures you it is wholly her fault, and not his internet connection at all.]

This week’s episode was brought to you by Chrometa. If you’re a law student, you can e-mail them and mention Podcast Ipsa Loquitur for a free copy. Hurry though! First ten listeners only that e-mail from a .edu account. After that, there is a 20% discount.

New Sexting Law in PA
-Sexting by teens has become a national concern. Some teens have even ended up on the sex offender list. One Pennsylvania prosecutor unsuccesfully tried a different approach to the sexting problem.
-In Pennsylvania, H.B. 2189 sorts out this issue.
-The new law would make it only a second degree misdemeanor for teenagers to send inappropriate images, as opposed to a felony. Violators will not be put on a sex offender list.
-However, it would not cover any images sent of minors actually having sex. That’s for the best, according to Josh.
-Huma agrees that kids are dumb, but they’re not sex offenders. If you take the picture, it will get out and it will be bad.

Podcast Ipsa Loquitur: Ethical Attorneys, Hugh Laurie, Cleavage in Court

Josh Camson — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:41:41 +0000

Check out show notes after the jump!

Career Services Offices & Social Media (apologies for the sound issues right here)

Huma’s school touched on social media very briefly and told them to get rid of anything inappropriate. Employers may have people friend you on Facebook to find out more about you. At Josh’s orientation, a professor gave a talk telling people to take inappropriate things off Facebook. Downplaying the role of social media to students is a disservice, according to Huma

Josh calls shenanigans on Twitter:

Huma and Josh both found lots of lawyers and law students to follow from JDSupra.

Huma teaches a federal judge how to tweet.

[We will have better sound quality in the future, we promise!]

Ethical Attorneys

There are difficult ethical concerns for lawyers. However, an easy one: if you are disbarred, stop practicing law. This has happened in Nebraska and Pennsylvania.

In Florida, an attorney served on a jury and changed his vote because he was tired of losing money on jury duty.

Law professor serves on jury. His misconduct results in a reversal.

Philadelphia Bar Association says you can’t sneakily friend an adverse witness.

Things Really Go Off the Tracks

First dates are just like job interviews…you’re getting Googled afterwards.

Is it worth protecting your tweets? Huma and Josh don’t think so. But apparently they both Google themselves a lot.

Gist allows you to keep track of things happening with your online contacts.

Huma has a gigantic crush on Hugh Laurie…and his 1L counterpart

One of Josh’s articles was discussed by a rabbi. The original posting was actually on Legalgeekery.com. Whoops.

Is men’s fashion worth talking about? Huma doesn’t think so, but Josh disagrees.

Go watch Arrested Development right now.

Josh’s male professor awkwardly explained to the class that they shouldn’t reveal cleavage in court. Awkwardness ensued.

Follow Josh and Huma on Twitter

Read Huma and Josh‘s blogs