Marylander Carolyn Elefant at My Shingle weighs in on how lawyers should handle the “specialties” field on LinkedIn. Many state bars, including Maryland’s, have rules forbidding a lawyer from holding him or herself out as a “specialist.” Elefant writes:

Eric Mazzone, North Carolina’s law practice management expert and blogger at Law Practice Matters and the Illinois State Bar Association advise lawyers against filling in the “specialties” box on Linked-In without including some nerdy little caveat like “My state bar does not recognize specializations” or “I am not a certified specialist” BUT I focus on the following.

That’s silly, Elefant continues:

As for me, thanks for the advice, but I’ll politely decline. In my view, filling in a standardized box labeled “specialties” that everyone from college students to seasoned professionals completes as part of their profile does not amount to holding myself out as a specialist given the context. And I’m not inclined to muck up a simple profile with a bunch of legal-ese only because someone up at the bar stretches the meaning of “specialties” beyond any reasonable interpretation.

Unless and until the bar issues a formal ethics opinion or propagates a rule about the specialties box, Elefant will be filling it in without caveats or disclaimers, she says.

Has LinkedIn’s “specialties” field ever given you pause? Did you fill it in? With or without caveats?

My expense report consists primarily of parking receipts and courthouse document copies. So I was impressed when I read a former legal secretary charged more than $46,000 on a company credit card to finance her side business – male exotic dancers.

Jarriette Richie, 41, was charged in Washington, D.C. federal court with fraud last week, according to The Washington Post. Richie worked at Saul Ewing LLP’s Washington office for three months in 2007, according to court filings. The credit card belonged to a lawyer whose firm merged with Saul Ewing, and all information related to the card was kept “in a locked room near Richie’s desk at Saul Ewing,” according to court filings.

Richie’s side businesses was Show N Tell Entertainment, which catered to female audiences and was based out of Richie’s Clinton home. The fraud charges stem from her planning an August 2007 trip to a Puerto Rican resort featuring the male performers. She used a personal credit cart to cover a $5,000 deposit, but then charged more than $21,000 on the company credit card for airline tickets and more than $25,000 for expenses at the resort, according to court filings.

Richie was released on her own recognizance following her initial court appearance Sept. 4, and her next hearing is scheduled for Sept. 18.