Arent Fox’s Barbara Wahl and Janine Carlan, and XO Communications’ JC Miller will present a WMACCA Litigation Forum: Mixing Litigation and Social Media on Tuesday, May 8th at Arent Fox’s Washington, DC, office and via Webcast.

Everyone’s doing it – social media, that is. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Second Life. When litigation strikes, both in house and outside counsel need to know how social media may play a part. Employees are active in these social media worlds and their actions may have implications for your company and your case. When litigation erupts, will your company be ready or will it be caught flat-footed? In our presentation, we will discuss the implications of recent court decisions regarding the use of social media as evidence. We will explore the different ways social media can be used to lead to discoverable evidence and how it can play out during depositions and during cross examination. We’ll also cover the ethical implications of you, as a lawyer, “friending” or “following” witnesses through social media. Before getting into the situation where an employee on the witness stand is shown his own damaging tweet about the case, a company can head off this situation by implementing internal policies regarding the use of social media. A policy may cover the use of company email addresses as login IDs for personal social media, whether blogging employees should be permitted to identify themselves as company employees, and whether employees should be permitted to blog about work issues. We’ll hear from in-house counsel and outside litigators about social media pitfalls and protective measures. Join us for an entertaining and informative discussion.