Hill’s law practice transformed by social media

Law Talk profile for The Memphis Daily News

Dec. 16, 2010

As a student at the University of Memphis’ Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law in the mid-1970s, Charlie Hill never suspected the word “tweet” would become part of his lexicon.

But as social media usage broadens and reaches from the individual to the corporate, it is becoming increasingly important for those corporations to understand how posts to Facebook, blog entries or the seemingly innocuous tweet – a 140-word message posted to Twitter – might compromise company secrets, policies or marketing plans.

“This whole area of what is and what isn’t private in social media is evolving daily, so there are no hard and fast lines and you can’t apply a traditional analysis of what’s private conduct versus public conduct,” said the 58-year-old Hill.

As part of his employment law practice with Glankler Brown PLLC, Hill provides advice and training to businesses on the legal aspects of social media and whether to include social media policies within their company policies.

“Courts are starting to try to draw a line between protecting an individual’s right to privacy versus what’s public communication,” he said.

If you have recently e-mailed, tweeted, blogged or written on someone’s “wall” – and chances are you have – then you know that rarely do those exchanges stay within the confines of a two-way conversation … (read more)