eDiscovery Daily Blog
No Victory Laps on Social Media: eDiscovery Trends
This is the second time this month I’ve covered a “social media gone wrong” story (here was the previous story I covered), but I just couldn’t ignore this story.
As covered by the ABA Journal (Clients drop firm after lawyer uses Twitter to celebrate ‘win’ against parents of disabled children, written by Martha Neil), a British law firm suffered a sudden loss of business over the last few days, after a series of tweets by a founding partner who serves as its managing director ignited a firestorm.
Mark Small of Baker Small heads a law firm known for its leading niche representation of local government councils defending against claims by parents seeking “special educational needs” funding for disabled children. However, Small was perceived as “gloating” over a lack of funding for disabled children by a number of observers. They pointed to a tweet about “a great ‘win’ last week which sent some parents into a storm!” and a tweet apparently responding to criticism that included a photo of a kitten and said Baker had received “great tweets” and had “just shared them with my cat,” the newspaper reports.
By Sunday, with parents lobbying their own local authorities not to hire Baker Small again, the firm began to apologize for the tweets that upset the parents, deleting the tweets and flooding its Twitter feed with re-tweets that supported parents.
However, it may already be too late to reverse the damage. At least eight local authorities, nearly half of the twenty represented by Baker Small in special-education cases have said they have either suspended their contracts with the firm or said they intend to do so, the Guardian reports.
When it comes to the ability to reach the world through social media posts, it’s important to remember that with great power comes great responsibility. Victory laps on social media are often not a good idea. Just ask this daughter of a laid off school administrator who told the world on Facebook to “SUCK IT”, costing her father an $80,000 discrimination settlement.
So, what do you think? Have you ever made a social media post that you regretted? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.
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