Confession: I first started playing with Twitter purely to research this story. In The Social Frontier (February 2012, Lexpert), I talk with social media dabblers, lovers and experts within the legal profession about how, and why, they use social media. It’s a series of fascinating conversations that gelled together into a very readable story. And it sold me on Twitter.

Featuring Jim Lebo, QC, senior litigator with McLennan Ross LLP in Calgary, James Gannon, associate with McCarthy Tetrault LLP in Toronto, Warren Smith, managing director with the Counsel Network in Vancouver, Susan Van Dyke, principal of Vancouver-based Van Dyke Marketing and Communications, Jennifer Dolman, a litigation partner with Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP in Toronto, and fellow Oslerite Simon Hodgett, Sameer Dhargalkar, then-director of business development for Norton Rose Canada LLP, now at  Heenan Blaikie LLP, Troy Ungerman, co-chair of the m&a group at Norton Rose Canada, Megan McPhee, a principal with Toronto litigation boutique Kim Orr Barristers PC, Deborah Howden, an employment lawyer with Toronto firm Shibley Righton LLP, and great quote from Microsoft Research New England’s Social Media Collective’s Dr. Danah Boyd.

If you want to visit the interviewees’ blogs, you can find Jim Lebo at Musings of An Alberta Lawyer and James Gannon’s IP Blog here.

If you want to follow Warren Smith or Susan Van Dyke on Twitter, he’s @lawheadhunter and she’s @lawyerPR.

Fave quotes:

“So, you want to know, why is this an old man like me starting a blog?” Jim Lebo

“Forget about your name being known by clients, no one in the firm even knows who you are.” James Gannon

“Getting left behind, for some lawyers, is enough for them to swallow hard and take the leap.” Susan Van Dyke

“This is social media, which means interactive, a bit of fun and engaging with others. It’s unscripted. It’s lawyers unplugged.” Susan Van Dyke