Interesting article at Law.com on Texas attorneys use of Myspace for marketing and advertising.  Really loved the quote from the criminal defense attorney that “[t]his is my perfect age group. The people I’m going after [as clients] are on MySpace. … A whole bunch of people who party, who drink, whatever, those are the people on there who want to be my [MySpace] friend.” 

The reality of practice is that, particularly in a small firm, any contact with people is potentially a contact leading to a business relationship, and getting out and shaking hands is always good.  Myspace hasn’t been on my list, but I have several websites and participate in forums at quite a few more and consider the electronic handshaking just as important as the fleshy kind. 

The tricky part comes with that word “advertising.”  I only consider one website to be advertisting my practice.  The rest are personal sites or public fora where one might or might not get pointed to my firm’s site.  Just like if I met you in person you might see my card or you might not.  Gotta be careful, because the bar is still all confused by the intertubes. 

I have no issues with the content limitations of advertising, but think the provisions requiring maintenance of copies for two years to be unrealistic and hopelessly outdated if a website allows any third-party dynamic content or comments.  I doubt anyone could keep accurate enough records to show what their Myspace page showed prospective clients on a given time and date 700 days prior.

But back to the article, apparantly the Texas bar requires prior submission of advertising websites run for their members, though no one has ever submitted a Myspace page for review.  As the lady from the Texas bar asks, is Myspace a “website,” or an online directory?  Where is the line between socially mentioning your profession and advertisting your availability.  Be interesting to see how, or if, the Texas bar handles the issues.