Ghostwriting and the legal profession are nothing new. But as more and more law firms and attorneys start taking advantage of the opportunities presented by social media, blogs and other emerging techmologies. (Yes, we said techMologies. Because we like it.)
But the ethical considerations lawyers need to consider when ghostwriting, or hiring ghostwriters, are not inconsequential. But ghostwriting a pleading for a pro se litigant who wants to trim costs is one thing. Having a writer create content for your website or your blog is another thing.
Does a person reading your blog expect that it is written by you, the attorney? If it isn’t written by you, do you need to make that clear? If you don’t, does that make it unethical? What ethics rule are you violating?
We’re going to keep up with this as time goes on. There have been ethics rulings on ghostwriting and blogging, but we’re not aware of any on ghostwritten blogs. We’ll keep looking.
(Photo courtesy Padraic’s Flickr page.)
