Facebook clients

Adding clients to your Facebook page could potentially breach client confidentiality, the Law Society has warned its members. The Society has issued professional guidance on the subject, advising solicitors to keep their professional lives separate from their social networking activities. It says sites for professionals such as LinkedIn, Biznik and Focus are more appropriate for online networking.

Law Society president John Wotton says: “There could be several implications in adding a client on some social media sites. Your professional integrity could be questioned if details of your private life are revealed while the client could unwittingly post sensitive information on your page, which would compromise confidentiality or impact ongoing cases. You may think your profile is reasonably innocuous but you cannot always control the information other people share, such as comments or photo tagging.”