The attorney employer has a legitimate interest in hiring the best employees possible, and in monitoring the employees’ compliance with both internal rules and policies regarding the use of social media and the overall firm duties to its clients and to the Rules of Professional Conduct. To that end, review and monitoring of employee and prospective employee social media posts can be very helpful.

Social media has become part of the fabric of our society, including those who work for and apply to work at law firms. Seven years ago, less than 10% of Americans were part of a social media site. Today, 69% of all adults with online access are part of a social media site, and over 90% of those between the ages of 18 and 29 participate in social media. As of February of 2012, 89% of social network site users had a Facebook account, which translates into 66% of all online adults.

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Employees of a vast majority of California employers who have an injury or condition that affects one or more of their major life activities are members of a protected class of persons. The Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) requires that protected class disabled persons be treated in certain defined ways. A failure to follow FEHA proscriptions can result in significant employer liability, even if the employer is acting in good faith and without knowledge of its wrongdoing.

FEHA obligations exist independent of other statutory and common law employer obligations such as the Worker’s Compensation (WC) laws, the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) and laws associated with employees who need leave for various reasons. It is the intersection and overlap of these laws that either mislead and confuse employers and their counselors or give those same persons plausible bases for engaging in unlawful conduct. While understanding how each of the interrelated laws fit together with FEHA is somewhat complex, it is neither impossible nor unreasonably difficult to comprehend. It is every employer’s responsibility to protect its employees from disability discrimination, harassment, and retaliation, so hard or not, the employer must make the effort and take the time to fully understand how its FEHA obligations are affected by the other disability and leave-related obligations.

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The intake process represents one of the most important yet least productive parts of a law practice. Whether you labor in a large firm or a solo practice, if your responsibilities include developing business, many dozens of hours a year go into speaking with potential new clients. Depending on your practice area, many and perhaps most of these people do not materialize into actual clients. Numerous people are simply looking for free advice. Many others present matters you decide not to take for a variety of reasons. In short, intake is the proverbial equivalent to kissing many frogs to find the prince.

Many attorneys feel that intake is so fragile and important that it should not be delegated to others or pushed into an application process without significant personal contact. However, the alternative may well be a significant amount of your most valuable asset time lost to a process that does not always result in a financial payoff.

Depending on your practice area, there are several processes you can put in place to significantly reduce the time drain that intake can place on your practice. This article is intended to provide a few suggestions for intake practices that will be effective and efficient.

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