The most widely read magazine for Canadian lawyers
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/50828
Davis LLP is one of the first Canadian law firms to set up shop online in the Second Life virtual world, mainly for marketing and recruiting. Real-life lawyers Pablo Guzman and Sarah Dale-Harris, whose virtual selves are known as PabloGuzman Little and BarristerSolicitor Underwood, use the virtual world to connect with potential clients. property, technology, and video game law. Its virtual office includes a library with legal information, a recruiting cen- tre, and a secure boardroom. Second Life, which started in 2003, has nine million "residents" from around the world, which are represented online by avatars (cartoon-like characters you create and control with a keyboard and mouse). For Davis LLP, which already had a successful blog, Second Life was seen as the next logical step. Multina- tional firms such as IBM have been rep- licating themselves in Second Life and using it for many purposes, from mar- keting to conducting business. "Lawyers go where their clients are or where they think they can get clients," says Pablo Guzman, who practises in Davis' Montreal office. (His impeccably dressed avatar is "PabloGuzman Little.") "For us, Second Life is a great marketing tool and a recruitment tool. It's not nec- essarily somewhere where we can prac- tise law, because we do not practise law in cyberspace." But there were some hurdles to over- come along the way. "We had to con- vince the executives that it was a good idea and that we weren't just trying to find an excuse to play video games dur- ing the day," says Sarah Dale-Harris, who works in the firm's Toronto office (and whose more casually dressed avatar is "BarristerSolicitor Underwood"). "It did take a long time for us to be able to have the application on our own com- puters." But it shows the firm, which was established in the 1890s, is willing to try cutting-edge technology, she says. "That as much as anything projects an image about the firm." Davis has been participating in Sec- ond Life for only a few months, and at this point it's mainly getting inquiries about what the firm is doing. While the avatars don't provide legal advice, it's seen as a way to connect with potential real-life clients, but it's still too early to say whether it will become a generator of volume work. The firm is also experimenting with the idea of "locked" virtual offices for private chats and meetings with poten- tial articling students. "It's almost like a virtual conference room, so it has some practical applications on top of the business development side of it," says Dale-Harris. This could include offering "webinars" or interactive forums. It may seem odd for a law firm to be there, says Guzman, but in a few years it could be- come the norm. (Back in the early 1990s, building a web site was viewed as a waste of money.) "If you're practising matrimonial law, you may not need it, but if you're sup- posed to be at the forefront of high-tech and you don't have a presence there, it may be queried why you don't," says Guzman. If a client asks to meet you in Second Life and you don't know what Second Life is, it means your client has to educate you, where your client should feel at all times that you are guiding them. If law firms and sole practitioners are able to use these Web 2.0 and social-net- working tools to their advantage, over a period of time it will, just like diet and exercise, come back to reward them, says Steve Matthews, founder of Stem Legal, which works with law firms to increase their online presence. There's a lot of innovation going on with Second Life right now, he says. Har- vard Law School is offering a class, called "CyberOne: Law in the Court of Public Opinion," which is partially taught in Second Life and involves real-time in- teraction. Through Harvard Extension School, the general public can view vid- eos, discussions, and lectures "in-world" at Berkman Island. Since avatars can in- teract with each other, just like in a real university setting, some industry watch- ers see this as the next wave of distance learning. And the Law Society of British Co- lumbia is using Second Life as a tool for modeling, says Matthews, where avatars are able to interact in a deposition or cross-examination. These interactions can be recorded as a flash file, embedded on a web site, or shown on a local intra- net for education purposes. "So I think that has a lot of promise," he says. In fact, some believe virtual worlds will create a whole new market for law- yers. Benjamin Duranske, an intellec- tual property lawyer who edits virtual lyblind.com and has authored a book on the subject called Virtual Law (due out this spring), is basing his practice on it. www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com M ARCH 2008 33 SECOND LIFE IS A TRADEMARK OF LINDEN RESEARCH, INC. CERTAIN MATERIALS HAVE BEEN REPRODUCED WITH THE PERMISSION OF LINDEN RESEARCH, INC. COPYRIGHT © 2001 – 2008 LINDEN RESEARCH, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.