Most people by now have had experience purchasing or using a coupon from Groupon, Living Social, Plum District and similar websites. Aside from a couple of incredibly annoying experiences with two purchases from Living Social, I have been a content consumer of these coupons.

Recently, the ABA Journal provided an overview of ethics opinions on lawyers and law firms using these services. The state bar associations in North Carolina, South Carolina and New York have issued opinions suggesting it’s OK for lawyers to jump on the deal-of-the-day coupon bandwagon. As this phenomenon spreads, I am willing to bet that more bar associations will also opine on the issue. Here are three main concerns discussed in these opinions:

1)  Does this kind of payment arrangement amount to fee splitting with non-lawyers, which is prohibited by Rule 5.4 of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, as well as the ethics rules of all the states?

2) Are advertisements for discounted legal services using this “couponing” method inappropriate for attorneys to use from a professionalism or appearance standpoint?

3) Is a “couponing” for business a good business model for attorneys?

One analysis of the fee-splitting issue says it does not amount to more than a payment of reasonable advertising costs. The South Carolina Bar’s advisory opinion states the fee charged by the website operator amounts to payment of the reasonable cost of permitted advertising by a lawyer rather than sharing the lawyer’s fee.

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I just finished putting together my materials for the MSBA Annual Meeting. I will be speaking Thursday morning during the conference about how lawyers can use social media effectively and without getting themselves into trouble. My presentation will be part of a broader session that will also include technology tips and online resource pointers. It will be in the morning, but yes, I have been promised that there will be coffee. (Pastries too, I hear.)

My presentation will focus on how social media can be used effectively by lawyers. From blogging to LinkedIn to Facebook and Twitter, social media can help you find new audiences for your work and can put you in control of your professional reputation. There are a few lawyers who have perfected the art of using these social media platforms for professional purposes.  Check out the Connecticut Employment Law Blog, the Ohio Employer’s Law Blog, and The Employer Handbook.

My materials include, among other things, a list of tips on how lawyers can use social media effectively. I think one of the most important is, “don’t be afraid to show your personality.” Tastefully and professionally, of course, and in moderation.

We spend so many of our waking hours thinking about work and do so much of our communication and networking electronically that it is far too easy for us, the online generation of lawyers, to lose who we are as individuals. We may not think about it, but in divorcing our personal lives from our professional lives so completely, we are losing the things that set us apart and that can help us naturally identify with colleagues, potential clients and referral sources.

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I haven’t seen it yet, but “The Avengers” had the biggest opening weekend ever. Comic book fans have been looking forward to seeing some of their favorite superheroes come to life on the big screen. A couple of lawyer bloggers have found a way to meld their comic book love with their day jobs. The Law and the Multiverse and Superhero Law are blogs written by attorneys that explore the legal issues surrounding characters within the superhero comic book universe.

Take S.H.I.E.L.D. for example, the shadowy government agency that appears to have its nose in a variety of superheroes’ business and in saving the world in general. The organization’s status within international law is explored by the Multiverse, which finds SHIELD is inconsistently depicted as either a U.S. or a United Nations entity. If it’s a U.N. organization then, “every single deployment would require the authorization of the member states, so the potential scope of authority in each engagement is likely to be very limited.”

On the other hand, if SHIELD is an American entity that “clears up a lot of problems, like the question of why it can exist in the first place, and it doesn’t necessarily introduce any new problems that aren’t already in play in the real world.” We’ve got SEAL Team 6 doing what SHIELD does anyway. So, maybe the comic book world isn’t so far-fetched.

In the case of The Incredible Hulk, the Multiverse finds that although Bruce Banner probably wouldn’t have an action against the government for his health problems, “depending on the nature of Banner’s employment, either the Federal Employee Compensation Act, the federal equivalent of workers’ compensation, or the Veterans Affairs Administration would provide compensation for his injuries, as he sustained them while executing his duties as a government employee.” I suppose a similar analysis would apply to Captain America.

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“Slime.”

As someone who was born in the ’80s, I think of the gross green dude from Ghostbusters or that nasty gelatinous substance that was regularly dropped on people on Nickelodeon. Wasn’t “slime” sold in single plastic containers in toy vending machines as well?

But I digress: I’m sure many of my contemporaries have fond memories of the green slime from our childhoods, but that is not the slime that has been plastered all over the news lately.

That would be “pink slime.” And guess what? We have all eaten it. Back in 1994, Rick Perry’s “Lean Finely Textured Beef” was developed in the wake of public health concerns over E. coli in beef. A process was developed by the founder of Beef Products Inc. that disinfects the meat using ammonia (YES, you heard that right…AMMONIA). The additive was approved for human consumption by the USDA in 2001.

Since its approval, consumer advocates, scientists, and even internal United States Department of Agriculture staff staff have objected to its addition to ground beef in the U.S. In 2007, the USDA determined the disinfection process was so effective that it would be exempt from “routine testing of meat used in hamburger sold to the general public. More disturbingly, beef in the U.S. can be labeled “100 percent ground beef” even if it contains up to 15 percent pink slime in the U.S. You can only be confident that your ground beef has no pink slime in it if it comes with a USDA Organic label.

OK… what?? I knew those “mystery meat” hamburgers and hot dogs weren’t healthy for me, but not in my wildest imagination could I have known that I was eating something that was treated with the same thing that I use to clean windows. Maybe the father from “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” was on to something when he sprayed Windex on everything, but I doubt it.

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The February issue of the ABA Journal contained the winners of its annual Blawg 100, a contest of the best legal blogs in 12 categories, including news, trial practice, opinion and legal technology.

The only winning blog I had heard of was Above the Law, which has been my (and I think everyone else’s) go-to source for informative and funny posts about legal happenings and the legal profession, as well as occasional disdain for the profession. It’s especially good for BigLaw lawyers and has great coverage of how bonuses are stacking up across the various firms each year.

While I really like the news and the humor, I find the BigLaw talk a bit irrelevant to me in my downtime, so it’s nice to add some new blogs to the mix. Among the Blawg100, I particularly liked Lowering the Bar,  which describes ridiculous and funny lawsuits. I also liked Abnormal Use, which contains stories about interesting tort lawsuits, product mishaps and personal stories from attorneys.

An ABA Journal reader suggested the Blawg 100 include Twitter feeds next year. (The Blawg 100 is also happens to be available in convenient Twitter form.) These are particularly good if you want detailed coverage of a specific event, like this Twitter feed that provides regular Huguely trial updates and additional information about the story (and I am sure there are others).

Even some local law firms have funny and informational Twitter feeds.

Any other blogs out there that are worth making part of your daily routine?

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Why some people take pride in the fact their Facebook profile emulates an episode of Tosh.0 is beyond me. (I am not saying that I don’t watch the show and laugh hysterically. But, simultaneously, I do wonder why people put some of this stuff up on the Internet for the entire world to see.)

While Facebook has been in the news recently for its upcoming IPO, another story, about Facebook privacy, caught my attention on the radio as I was brushing my teeth this morning. Apparently, Facebook is still working on deleting photos from its servers in a timely manner nearly three years after the issue was brought to Facebook’s attention.

Have you ever deleted a horrific photo on Facebook that was posted by a “friend?” Well, you may not have really deleted it. Photos “deleted” from Facebook seemingly never go away if you have a direct link to the image file on Facebook’s servers. Just imagine the joy felt by those individuals who had the common sense or foresight to delete photos because they didn’t want retaliation from an employer, wanted to avoid family drama or uploaded a photo of a friend without permission, to name a few reasons, when they discovered the photo would remain accessible for an indefinite amount of time as long as someone had a direct link to the .jpg file in question.

A few months ago, I had to research the discoverability of information and data on a Facebook (or other social media) account and profile. From the limited guidance published by a few jurisdictions, it seems that a party would likely succeed in requesting Facebook information and data during the discovery process. The court’s interpretation of federal Rule 26(b)(2)(c) allows for an extremely broad scope of relevancy.

While Maryland courts have not ruled on this broad scope of relevancy as it pertains to social media discoverability pursuant to Rule 26(b)(2)(c), it has ruled on its reliability and authentication. In April 2011, the Maryland Court of Appeals reversed the conviction of Antoine Griffin, which was based on evidence gathered from a MySpace profile of Griffin’s girlfriend. The Court of Special Appeals had ruled the police officer proffered by the state as an authenticating witness was sufficient to authenticate the MySpace profile printout. (A law professor from Chicago gave a great summary of this case on his blog and I will highlight some points here.)

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