web.tech.law launches on 1 March 2012
Thursday, March 1, 2012 at 8:36AM Why web.tech.law exists
Addressing the challenges presented by the social Web requires a different approach to the approaches lawyers tend to adopt when faced with these sorts of challenges. The social Web challenges our assumptions about how people should behave towards each other, particularly how users ought to respond to legal authority. It is an empowering platform and working in this space requires you to be part social marketer, part therapist and more than a little fanatical about the social and digital media. Very few lawyers combine these qualities and very few lawyers can appreciate just how differently we need to think about these challenges. Fortunately, we do.
The social Web has changed how business is done. Many businesses view the social Web as an essential platform for marketing campaigns and perhaps even their operations. At the same time, consumers are actively sharing their experiences with businesses and are engaging with brands using a variety of social networks and services. Consumers have discovered they have powerful voices through these services and their conversations with businesses online are giving rise to an unusual set of legal and compliance risks which, increasingly, can not be addressed using conventional legal tactics.
The social Web isn't just a consumer Web. The social media ethos isn't limited to consumer-oriented activities. It increasingly extends into the enterprise where businesses are starting to grapple with a growing push to share and engage more with a variety of stakeholders.
What are these risks? They include data protection and privacy risks; content licensing infringements; reputational harm and unlawful competition. Neglecting to pay adequate attention to these concerns can result in very real and substantial harm, not to mention a failure to comply with a growing body of laws, regulations and rules. This is where we come in. We are obsessed with the medium. We're practically natives. We understand the landscape and we spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about and developing creative solutions to unusual challenges.
Our services
web.tech.law offers a range of services in three broad categories:
Our clients have a variety of needs ranging from a basic need to understand the situation they find themselves in to developing more effective legal frameworks and solutions to address the challenges they face. Clients' requirements may include advice on a recent development, a workshop for staff or a better legal framework for an online initiative.
While we are the legal experts, we recognise that our clients frequently require non-legal services to better address the risks they encounter so we collaborate with a variety of professionals who are experts in social marketing, strategy, reputation management and other essential social Web-related services. In other words, we have developed a smart and holistic approach to our client’s challenges. Our launch strategic partners are Cerebra Communications and Vuma Reputation Management and we have a couple more up our collective sleeves.
Background
web.tech.law has its origins in a “new media” focus area Paul Jacobson created in Jacobson Attorneys in 2008. This focus area grew into a social and digital media speciality until 2011 when Paul decided to create a focused Web and digital media legal and compliance services firm: web.tech.law Proprietary (Limited) which was incorporated in January 2012.
web.tech.law is South Africa’s first specialised Web and digital media legal and compliance services firm. There are a number of media and technology law firms and some pretty good lawyers working at those firms but developing frameworks and solutions for the social Web, in particular, requires lawyers to work counter-intuitively and we do that fairly well.
Contact
Please visit our Media Centre page where you can find contact details, bio's and licensing information for content published on the site. Paul Jacobson can be reached using the following:
Phone: 083 444 8260
Email: paul@webtechlaw.com
Twitter: @pauljacobson
