Social Network Review: Legal OnRamp
Nov 29th, 2009 | By Rex Gradeless | Category: Featured, Lead Article, Practice Management, Social Media, Social Networking, Web 2.0
There are many social networks out there tailored to those within the legal profession. From Facebook, LinkedIn, Avvo, JD Diversity, Legally Minded, Lawyrs.net, Advance Advocates, Counsel.net, Legal OnRamp, MH Connected…the list goes on and on.
All of these social networks are trying to become the gold standard within the legal profession.
The reality: only a few of these networks will survive the fight. Most will fail. Some already have.
With such a push and shove to be the leader, which social networks should legal professionals join? How does a legal professional narrow their social networks to maximize their return on investment? Which social network will still be around in a few years? What social network is a waste of time?
Best advice: do not join them all. You will never get anything done maintaining profiles on all these social networks – trying to will probably drive you crazy.
In order to help you separate the wheat from the chaff, over the next few months, we will be reviewing social networks for lawyers and other legal professionals at SocialMediaLawStudent.com. If there’s a particular social network you’d like to see reviewed, please contact us here.
Hopefully, this will help you narrow down your social network search and allow you to accomplish your goals: networking, client development, staying in contact with peers, or simply enjoying yourself.
The first social network review: “Legal OnRamp”.
According to their site:
“Legal OnRamp is a Collaboration system for in-house counsel and invited outside lawyers and third party service providers. There are lawyers participating from over 40 countries, and a rapidly growing collection of content and technology resources.
Basic services are free, so all members are expected to contribute to the community as a whole. If you are a law firm lawyer wishing to participate, please fill out the application questions in full, and specify what knowledge you would like to share with the Community.
Membership in Legal OnRamp is primarily for in-house lawyers. Firm lawyers may be invited to participate based on the fit of their practice, their authoring of content, and their ability to expand the network. For firm non-lawyers (e.g., Marketing, IT, Knowledge Management or other), only the senior-most person in the organization should apply. For solution providers, consultants and others not affiliated with a legal department of law firm, membership will be considered based on your ability to contribute to the value of the network.
Generally, invited members will receive a response within 72 hours; we do not respond unfavorably. If you do not receive a response, you are welcome to re-apply in 4-6 months.”
As you can see, Legal OnRamp has become a sort of exclusive group of legal professionals. Essentially, without being an in-house lawyer, or a lawyer who gets an invitation, you cannot join this social network. LAME.
This means most of the world’s population, and most within the legal profession, cannot join. Ironically, Legal OnRamp’s motto, “Clients Driving Change”, stands in contrast with the fact that most of their clients cannot join the network!
The idea of Legal OnRamp is that members will share information, pose hypothetical questions, and converse with one another about various legal issues. This could ultimately lead to more business.
Pros:
- Somewhat limited to corporate and in-house lawyers.
- Possibly exclusive to a few of your peers (of which you are already probably connected to).
- Collaborative tool for in-house lawyers to share work product.
- Large Law Firms share resources on Legal OnRamp.
- Free answers from lawyers at the Help Desk.
Cons:
- Somewhat limited to corporate and in-house lawyers.
- No way of knowing how people are actually using Legal OnRamp without joining.
- Many other legal professionals not allowed to join.
“Legal OnRamp is the leader in integrated Web 2.0 for law departments and law firms. Founded in 2007, it has over 9,000 members, half of whom are in-house lawyers.”
However, a closer look at the site indicates 1 blog post in April, 2 blog posts in September, 1 blog post in October, and 2 blog posts in November. The exclusive community that is Legal On Ramp does not seem to be very active based on their blog postings. Other reports, from law bloggers, suggest there’s more collaboration going on inside.
Without having membership, this seems to be a very exclusive network. There’s no way for you to know whether joining the network is worthwhile. There may be many in-house lawyers “signed up” to the site but are they actually participating and engaging in meaningful conversations? That’s the million-dollar question.
Because Legal OnRamp limits membership to in-house counsel, and a very small group of people (do they kick out the law students after graduating?), most lawyers are precluded from joining. Legal OnRamp is not trying to build a true social network but, instead, a closed network.
You might consider checking out Legal OnRamp if you are an in-house lawyer wanting to talk to other in-house lawyers. I’d recommend asking your peers first to see if they are finding any value in using Legal OnRamp.
The jury is still out on this network.
I am signing up (keeping fingers crossed about membership?) and will post an update after using Legal OnRamp for 1 month.
Can anyone else comment to let us know what’s going on inside the gated walls of Legal OnRamp? Is Legal OnRamp as much of a time-waster as trying to become a member?
Here are few other articles about Legal OnRamp that might interest you:
- Legal OnRamp and the Wired GC
- Is It Time to Get on the Legal OnRamp?
- Corporate Executive Board Joins Forces With Legal OnRamp, Legal Web 2.0 Collaboration Leader.
- Gain Large Corporate Business with Legal OnRamp
Related posts:
- A New Social Network for Legal Community: JD Diversity
- Twitter Party Is Just Beginning
- Social Network Review: Counsel.Net
- How LexTweet Brings Legal Community Together on Twitter
- New iPhone App Gives You The Legal Edge
- ABA Journal Launches Legal Rebels Project With Social Media
- How to Ease Your Law Firm into Social Media: Yammer
- Rex Gradeless of Social Media Law Student Featued on LexBlog Q & A
- Craigslist Bartering Chickens for Legal Services?
- Video Legal Marketing: Like a Solid Handshake?
Rex -
Did you really just review Legal OnRamp without having been inside the site? Do you review books by looking at their covers?
Legal OnRamp is the preeminent website for in-house counsel. It is not a social networking site. It is a collaboration platform full of substantive legal information and rich discussions on the business of law.
By being a select group of lawyers, there is none of the blatant advertising and self-promotion you see in open social network sites. Private practice lawyers are required to contribute substantive content to Legal OnRamp or they get kicked out.
The blog posts you mentioned are just a select few published to the pubic page. Inside Legal OnRamp, the content puts any other legal networking site to shame.
[Reply]
Rex Gradeless
Reply:
November 29th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
How do we even know if this is a book? There’s no cover to read!
There was a clause stating I would re-review the site within 1 month of using the service. I think the post also mentioned: “The jury is still out on this network.”
This review exposes their biggest problem: not being able to join. What I didn’t share is that I’ve tried joining Legal OnRamp for the past 5 months and have had no luck. Other lawyers have indicated they too could not gain access.
Legal OnRamp seems to not allow the advantages of web 2.0 technology (such as crowdsourcing) to work for them. Instead, they have taken the Big Brother approach.
Having a network (or collaboration platform) free from blatant advertising and self-promotion gurus marketing their junk IS extremely important. This is something that should be easily accomplished by 1) a policing mechanism administered by Legal OnRamp and 2) members self-policing (e.g. limiting membership to internal groups).
Would be very interested in reading the content if it’s as good as you say. Keeping my fingers crossed for membership.
[Reply]
Doug Cornelius
Reply:
November 29th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
Rex -
A site need not be wide open for anyone to join to take advantage of web-based communication. When we are talking about issues that confront my company, I prefer a small network of people I trust. I have no interest in reaching a wide audience. Trust is more important than a mass of numbers.
As I said, Legal OnRamp is a collaboration tool. It has no interest in being an open social networking platform like MH Connected.
Legal OnRamp is for in-house counsel. They purposefully limit private practice lawyers so that there is no more than 1 for each in-house. If you want to join, get a client to join.
[Reply]
Rex Gradeless
Reply:
November 29th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
“Membership in Legal OnRamp is primarily for inhouse lawyers. Firm lawyers may be invited to participate based on the fit of their practice, their authoring of content, and their ability to expand the network. For firm non-lawyers (e.g., Marketing, IT, Knowledge Management or other), only the senior-most person in the organization should apply. For solution providers, consultants and others not affiliated with a legal department of law firm, membership will be considered based on your ability to contribute to the value of the network.”
The clause that really gets me is “membership will be considered based on your ability to contribute to the vale of the NETWORK”
When applying for membership they ask if you are a: “Lawyer at a Law Firm”, Non-Lawyer at Law Firm”, “Inhouse lawyer”, “Non-Lawyer in Corporate Legal Department”, “Legal Educator”, “Law Student”, or “Other”.
Maybe it’s better to think of Legal OnRamp as a collaboration tool for members of the country club? I suppose they warrant this criticism with their Big Brother approach.
Lawyers have to get their clients to sign up before they can sign up? Does my client have to have a certain number of employees so I can join?
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Doug Cornelius and Gwynne Monahan, Kelly Hoey. Kelly Hoey said: Agree – too narrow a net to be REALLY useful. RT @Rex7: Social Network Review: Legal OnRamp http://bit.ly/8uZiZ8 [...]
Rex, I understand where you’re coming from. I tried to get the low-down a couple of weeks ago about CLE courses they were hosting and was surprised at the lack of basic information available when I visited the site. I tweeted about it and subsequently applied (third party service providers).
I’m unclear if I was accepted as a member (I’ll say no) but did chat with a principal who graciously gave me a peek at the platform and Doug is right, it’s a dynamic “platform full of substantive legal information and rich discussions on the business of law”.
Unlike so many social media evangelists, I do believe there’s a place for open AND closed networks. Perhaps, as Doug further stated, we should instead, accept that Legal OnRamp “is not a social networking site, [but] a collaboration platform”. Then our expectations, even questions will be more relevant.
[Reply]
Rex Gradeless
Reply:
November 29th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
Even viewed as a collaboration tool, why should my clients use the tool when I can’t even get in to see if it’s worth our time? Shouldn’t I advise them to collaborate with something I’ve been able to use before?
Hard to advise without knowing what the tool is/ does. Just curious to what’s behind the closed doors. You saying it’s a dynamic platform makes the closed doors even more suspenseful.
[Reply]
[...] they’re starting a new series of reviews of social networking sites for lawyers. First up: Legal OnRamp. And if you want more info on social networking (ahem – besides The Inspired Solo, of [...]
Rex, I think you did a great job on this post with what information you could get and you highlighted a big problem for this platform with the fact that you were able to get so little information to use for a review. I’ve been a member of this platform and been on the site a few times. I have to say that I didn’t find it be all that engaging and every time I go back to try it out, I find that I’ve been dumped for inactivity. Unengaging and inhospitable. I don’t think this is a recipe for success.
If you have a mind to do it, check out ActiveRain.com. This is a networking platform for real estate professionals that I was active with in 2007 when I was with a real estate technology company. That platform has grown tremendously (160K members now), and I think that any legal networking platform would be well-served to look at its playbook. Yes, real estate is primarily a B2C industry and law is primarily a B2B industry, but the success of Active Rain is how they got the service providers to interact, not who those providers’ endusers are.
[Reply]