Chances are, if youre reading this, you already know: online communities and user-driven Web 2.0 websites now dominate the Internet. The common urge to express oneself, share, and interact with other people has made sites like Myspace, YouTube, Flickr, Xing, LinkedIn, and Facebook some of the most-visited sites on the Web.
But what has been missing is an online community just for lawyers - a place where lawyers from anywhere in world can present themselves, network, share information, build contacts, discuss, form groups, and have some fun.
A social community for lawyers
A new online community hopes to fill this void. After several months of development and private beta testing, lawyrs.net has been officially launched. Lawyers, law students, and anybody with a serious interest in law are invited to join the community.
Those who are new to lawyrs.net will find that there's already an active and growing community of users known as lawyrs from more than 60 countries who have created user profiles, formed groups, and started building international contacts.
The design of lawyrs.net was kept simple, but the websites functionality is comparable to some of the worlds largest networking websites. Some may even find lawyrs.net easier to use than mainstream social communities.
Similar to other social networks, lawyrs use their real names, upload pictures, and create profiles containing information (current and previous jobs, law schools, areas of practice, publications, and personal interests). These profiles form the basis of networking.
Unique, practical tools
But there are also many features that are unique to lawyrs.net, and designed specifically for lawyers. For example, the Law Firms listings allow users to search an ever-growing database of law firms and their global branches. You can also search for colleagues by practice area. So, not only is it easy to find other lawyers, its just as easy to make contact with them just send a personal message with your lawyrs.net account.
What else can you do? Lawyrs can keep up with all the latest news and gossip in the Law News section. Here, community members post and vote on the law-related news they consider the most important, informative, or funniest. Community members can also add any law-related articles and books they have written to the searchable Publications list, where other interested users can easily find it.
Expansion and improvements to the functionality of lawyrs.net are planned for the coming months, all with the aim of giving lawyers even more ways to meet, connect, and interact with each other.
Calling all LL.M.s
LLM GUIDE users will already know that user-driven websites can be an indispensable resource. If youve ever had a specific question about an LL.M. program or the application process, chances are that you can find the answer somewhere on the discussion board.
Now LLM GUIDE users can tap into another vast pool of expertise, knowledge, and experience. As a partner of the lawyrs.net, LLM GUIDE actively supports its development, and encourages interested students, alumni, and future students to join one of the many LL.M.-related groups.
In fact, you can now join lawyrs.net directly from LLM GUIDE, without the need for an invitation. Some law school pages in the LLM GUIDE directory, such as NYU and Georgetown, already have direct links to Class of 2009 groups.
In a nutshell, lawyrs.net was designed to be a simple, functional community where lawyers from around the world - who have a lot in common and a lot to share - can come together. Its the kind of law-focused community that has long been missing on the Internet.
We hope you to see you soon over at lawyrs.net !
To learn more about what you can do at lawyrs.net, take a tour here.
