The Law Society governing England and Wales has published a practice note for its members setting out best practice guidelines for the use of social media platforms for the legal profession.

The move comes in the same week that President-elect Austin Lafferty warned of the dangers of failing to innovate.

“Solicitors in Scotland are a funny lot. They are assiduous in protecting and enhancing their clients’ interests. But as for their own businesses? Change and innovation tend to be at the point of a gun, with an instinct not to move with the times other than only when alternatives fail,” he wrote exclusively in his blog this week.

“Solicitors are a cautious breed, which is mainly a good thing. But it means we tend to be reactive, rather than at the cutting edge of beneficial change.

“But think more widely: Steve Jobs, Alan Sugar, James Dyson, Mark Zuckerberg, Damian Hirst, Tom Hunter – their starting-off point was always to ask what could be done to make a good or a service better. Not to preserve what they already had or knew, but to push the boundaries further.”

The English Law Society policy states that the benefits of engaging via social media cannot be quantified, but adds that “ it may be an expectation of some clients, in the future, to be able to communicate in this way.”

“Some clients may use social media channels, rather than email, as their main method of communication. The increased use of social media by clients could result in a corresponding expectation that these channels of communication should be available in relation to legal services,” it says.

“The growth of the use of social media by clients may result in a corresponding expectation that the legal profession should also embrace it as part of its working practices,”.

“Social media can offer many professional and personal benefits: Commercial benefits arise from the ability to communicate products and materials via social media and use them as marketing and advertising tools.

“Social media activity is beneficial for engaging with clients and other professionals, for example through direct and immediate feedback from those who have used legal services, and can be used to allow greater access to legal information and resources.”

The note provides guidelines on maintaining the solicitor-client relationship and adds that “the same ethical obligations that you adhere to professionally also apply to your conduct in an online environment.”

Earlier this year the Law Society of Scotland recommended that firms adopt a social media policy to provide guidance for employees, but did not publish a profession-wide guide of its own.