LawyersUSA

A new legal social network has arrived, promising to provide an open forum for lawyers to speak with one another on various aspects of the profession.

ESQchat.com was launched earlier this year by Theod Simon and Arbi Nazari, both of whom previously managed technology for law firms. The website was designed by site architect Pogos Abdunuryan.

We discovered there were these gaps in the legal community that needed to be addressed, particularly in the way attorneys communicate with one another," Simon said.

There are currently several networking sites that cater to attorneys, including Lawbby.com, Lawlink.com and LinkedIn, which has 90,000 attorney members.

But Simon claims his site is different because it allows an open chat for attorneys.

The free site, which already has 2,200 members, is exclusively for attorneys who are licensed to practice in the U.S. Interested parties apply via the website, and Simon or Nazari contacts the applicant's state bar and law firm for confirmation.

Once an attorney is approved, he or she creates an online profile similar to what may be seen on LinkedIn.

Too similar?

With lawyers having access to several other networking sites, how does ESQChat stack up? Some legal marketers feel it's not particularly special.
"I don't see any idea here that hasn't been around for over one hundred years," said Larry Bodine, a Glen Ellyn, Ill.-based legal marketing expert. "Every single thing ESQ offers, the ABA [American Bar Association] has."

Bodine, who perused the application process but hasn't officially signed up for ESQChat, said the ABA offers similar forums for attorneys to chat with one another over legal issues – as well as dozens of listservs.

He also doesn't understand why someone would sign up for ESQChat if they already have a LinkedIn profile.

"LinkedIn has thousands of lawyers," said Bodine. "It's pretty much taken the place of [the lawyer search directory] Martindale-Hubbell."

Features of ESQ

Simon and Nazari hope site visitors overlook the similarities to other networks.

ESQchat.com contains a host of features including legal news, chat rooms and a calendar. The legal blog center contains snippets of blogs covering around 40 legal topics.

But its primary draw may be the Virtual Firm, a legal network that allows users to post a blog, upload photos and produce a network for co-counsel.

The idea is to allow an open forum for lawyers to pass along legal advice.

For example, "sole practitioners … [can use the forum] to approach [someone else] for assistance," said Simon. "If you are in California, working on a case in Florida, you need to know what the Florida deposition guidelines are. What are the standards there?"
So far, Simon said, the majority of the discussion has been related to criminal and employment law.

Plans for the future

With the site still in its infancy, Simon said the next plan is to improve the site's career center to make it easier to posting and applying for legal jobs. He also would like to eventually incorporate law students into the site.

"Lawyers can have a lot of influence over what direction law students take and how to pass the bar," said Simon. "We feel this site could help them reach out."

And will ESQchat.com be able to stand out from the crowd?

"We're not looking necessarily at being a competitive site. We're constantly improving," said Simon. "Our goal from the beginning is to address the gaps in a rather broad community and to allow lawyers to ask questions confidentially, the kind of thing that can't be done on other broad social networks."

Questions or comments can be directed to the writer at: justin.rebello@lawyersusaonline.com.