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Social Network Review: Legal OnRamp

By Rex Gradeless

There are many social networks out there tailored to those within the legal profession. From Facebook, LinkedIn, Avvo, JD Diversity, Legally Minded, Lawyrs.net, Advance Advocates, Counsel.net, Legal OnRamp, MH Connected?the list goes on and on.

All of these social networks are trying to become the gold standard within the legal profession.

The reality: only a few of these networks will survive the fight. Most will fail. Some already have.

With such a push and shove to be the leader, which social networks should legal professionals join? How does a legal professional narrow their social networks to maximize their return on investment? Which social network will still be around in a few years? What social network is a waste of time?

Best advice: do not join them all. You will never get anything done maintaining profiles on all these social networks – trying to will probably drive you crazy.

In order to help you separate the wheat from the chaff, over the next few months, we will be reviewing social networks for lawyers and other legal professionals at SocialMediaLawStudent.com. If there’s a particular social network you’d like to see reviewed, please contact us here.

Hopefully, this will help you narrow down your social network search and allow you to accomplish your goals: networking, client development, staying in contact with peers, or simply enjoying yourself.

The first social network review: ?Legal OnRamp?.

According to their site:

?Legal OnRamp is a Collaboration system for in-house counsel and invited outside lawyers and third party service providers. There are lawyers participating from over 40 countries, and a rapidly growing collection of content and technology resources.

Basic services are free, so all members are expected to contribute to the community as a whole. If you are a law firm lawyer wishing to participate, please fill out the application questions in full, and specify what knowledge you would like to share with the Community.

Membership in Legal OnRamp is primarily for in-house lawyers. Firm lawyers may be invited to participate based on the fit of their practice, their authoring of content, and their ability to expand the network. For firm non-lawyers (e.g., Marketing, IT, Knowledge Management or other), only the senior-most person in the organization should apply. For solution providers, consultants and others not affiliated with a legal department of law firm, membership will be considered based on your ability to contribute to the value of the network.

Generally, invited members will receive a response within 72 hours; we do not respond unfavorably. If you do not receive a response, you are welcome to re-apply in 4-6 months.?

As you can see, Legal OnRamp has become a sort of exclusive group of legal professionals. Essentially, without being an in-house lawyer, or a lawyer who gets an invitation, you cannot join this social network. LAME.

This means most of the world?s population, and most within the legal profession, cannot join. Ironically, Legal OnRamp?s motto, ?Clients Driving Change?, stands in contrast with the fact that most of their clients cannot join the network!

The idea of Legal OnRamp is that members will share information, pose hypothetical questions, and converse with one another about various legal issues. This could ultimately lead to more business.

Pros:

- Somewhat limited to corporate and in-house lawyers.
- Possibly exclusive to a few of your peers (of which you are already probably connected to).
- Collaborative tool for in-house lawyers to share work product.
- Large Law Firms share resources on Legal OnRamp.
- Free answers from lawyers at the Help Desk.

Cons:

- Somewhat limited to corporate and in-house lawyers.
- No way of knowing how people are actually using Legal OnRamp without joining.
- Many other legal professionals not allowed to join.

?Legal OnRamp is the leader in integrated Web 2.0 for law departments and law firms. Founded in 2007, it has over 9,000 members, half of whom are in-house lawyers.?

However, a closer look at the site indicates 1 blog post in April, 2 blog posts in September, 1 blog post in October, and 2 blog posts in November. The exclusive community that is Legal On Ramp does not seem to be very active based on their blog postings. Other reports, from law bloggers, suggest there?s more collaboration going on inside.

Without having membership, this seems to be a very exclusive network. There?s no way for you to know whether joining the network is worthwhile. There may be many in-house lawyers ?signed up? to the site but are they actually participating and engaging in meaningful conversations? That?s the million-dollar question.

Because Legal OnRamp limits membership to in-house counsel, and a very small group of people (do they kick out the law students after graduating?), most lawyers are precluded from joining. Legal OnRamp is not trying to build a true social network but, instead, a closed network.

You might consider checking out Legal OnRamp if you are an in-house lawyer wanting to talk to other in-house lawyers. I?d recommend asking your peers first to see if they are finding any value in using Legal OnRamp.

The jury is still out on this network.

I am signing up (keeping fingers crossed about membership?) and will post an update after using Legal OnRamp for 1 month.

Can anyone else comment to let us know what’s going on inside the gated walls of Legal OnRamp? Is Legal OnRamp as much of a time-waster as trying to become a member?

Here are few other articles about Legal OnRamp that might interest you:

- Legal OnRamp and the Wired GC
- Is It Time to Get on the Legal OnRamp?
- Corporate Executive Board Joins Forces With Legal OnRamp, Legal Web 2.0 Collaboration Leader.
- Gain Large Corporate Business with Legal OnRamp

Related posts:

1. A New Social Network for Legal Community: JD Diversity
2. Twitter Party Is Just Beginning
3. How LexTweet Brings Legal Community Together on Twitter

Full post as published by Social Media Law Student on November 29, 2009 (boomark / email).