With the launch last week of DLA Piper’s Facebook-style networking tool for its trainees, it looks as if the social networking buzz is slowly working its way into the legal world. For the comparatively isolated in-house legal community, having easy online access to peers and external counsel alike could spell the beginning of an era of greater empowerment and integration, but how ready are they to log on and be counted?
It is a question that corporate counsel may have to ask themselves sooner rather than later. Dedicated legal social networking sites are already being created by firms and in-house teams, but as yet only Legal OnRamp, launched by U.S. tech company Qulas at the behest of a group of nine blue chip companies led by Cisco general counsel Mark Chandler, has brought the two sides of the profession together.
