More and more small business sprouting up to outsource services typically done by a “full service” law firm. This is typical after a recession. The speed of the recovery may determine the quantity of these services being commoditized. Slower recovery = more commoditization of legal services.

You will probably never see the tweeting of legal advice for many many years (if EVER). Under most circumstances, long-established ethics rules preclude lawyers from giving away the client’s right to confidentiality.

The means to the end have changed. A legal professional lacking substance will still lack substance online. As consumers become more tech savvy, consumer-generated filtering should assist potential clients in their search for legal counsel. See avvo.com for one example of consumer-generated filtering in practice.

Don’t you think one major trend will be that we may see new formats of legal advice? What if I could pay a small amount of money to get legal advice as a tweet?

Now apart from that, I think one danger is that if a lot of legal professionals start leveraging social media, the respect and recognition building among attorneys becomes harder. It’ll be hard for a non-legal person to distinguish a real practitioner from some semi-pro.

I suspect droves of other “experts” (depicted above) will be coming out big in 2010. People we’ve never heard of before. I respect your work greatly Carolyn.

And for the record:

My first computer was all DOS.

Also, I am no “expert” in social media. I’m just here to learn and spread that knowledge. I’m not sure I’ve ever claimed to be one? If sharing free information makes me an expert, then I’m an expert. However, I have written no books, sold no webinars, have never been paid to speak, no do I intend to engage in ANY of these activities. I simply enjoy the intersection of law and technology.

Likewise, I issued my FREE ebook on social media (with a chapter on ethics) in July 2008, way before any of the so-called “experts” started marketing social media to lawyers. Proof: http://www.myshingle.com/2008/07/articles/announcements/new-free-ebook-social-networking-for-lawyers-the-what-why-and-how/

The best thing about the blogosphere is that it’s transparent and it’s easy to document who is out in front.