Legal Twitter is using social media to do good

It was around the time of the Brex­it vote in 2016 that we first saw a small group of lawyers grab the UK’s con­scious­ness on social media. But in the five years since, the pro­file of #legaltwit­ter has risen expo­nen­tial­ly, their num­ber has grown and the sim­ple legal analy­sis they offer has nev­er been more in demand.

Twit­ter has proved par­tic­u­lar­ly fer­tile ground for social media and the law. It has giv­en the legal sec­tor a plat­form out­side the court­room, from crowd­fund­ing legal actions to dri­ving aware­ness of peti­tions against injus­tices or sen­tenc­ing.

Many have fol­low­ings in the tens or hun­dreds of thou­sands, often rivalling some celebri­ties, their pop­u­lar­i­ty fuelled by an abil­i­ty to deliv­er a damn­ing expla­na­tion in a short tweet or thread as effec­tive­ly as a lengthy clos­ing argu­ment.

Most recent­ly this has been instru­men­tal in explain­ing the new gov­ern­ment coro­n­avirus reg­u­la­tions, pro­pelling human rights bar­ris­ter Adam Wag­n­er, of Doughty Street Cham­bers, into the wider Twit­ter lime­light. His easy-to-under­stand threads about the ever-chang­ing COVID tier sys­tems have been the go-to for media and the gen­er­al pub­lic alike.

He says: “I cer­tain­ly had no idea I would be explain­ing com­plex crim­i­nal laws about basic social activ­i­ties or that under­stand­ing law would become part of peo­ple’s every­day lives, as it has dur­ing the pan­dem­ic, because of lock­down rules. I have been sur­prised at how enthu­si­as­tic peo­ple have been about my work, break­ing things down with­out any agen­da except mak­ing the law clear­er.”

Wag­n­er says he was seen as an “out­lier and odd­i­ty” when he joined Twit­ter a decade ago, after anoth­er now sought-after legal analy­sis com­men­ta­tor, lawyer David Allen Green, sug­gest­ed it. It has allowed Wag­n­er to democ­ra­tise his knowl­edge, par­tic­u­lar­ly on human rights law, along­side YouTube explain­er videos, and in addi­tion he posts his Bet­ter Human pod­cast.

“It is huge­ly use­ful as a way for the legal com­mu­ni­ty to reach out­side the dusty halls of Tem­ple to the wider pub­lic. Law touch­es every aspect of our lives and it should­n’t just be acces­si­ble to peo­ple who can afford to pay for advice,” he says.

Social media platforms tackling diversity and underrepresentation

Anoth­er to use social media and the law for good is Alexan­dra Wil­son of 5SAH. As @EssexBarrister on Twit­ter, she has chron­i­cled her jour­ney to becom­ing a bar­ris­ter, speak­ing frankly about the racism and prej­u­dice she has had to over­come. It led her to write a mem­oir, In Black and White: A Young Barrister’s Sto­ry of Race and Class in a Bro­ken Jus­tice Sys­tem.

She says: “Social media has been so impor­tant for me in my jour­ney. It has enabled me to share my per­son­al expe­ri­ences with so many peo­ple in a way that I could nev­er have pre­vi­ous­ly imag­ined. I want to change per­cep­tions about what the legal pro­fes­sion is like and also what it should be.

“A viral tweet describ­ing that I’m ‘what a bar­ris­ter looks like’, despite not being what peo­ple typ­i­cal­ly think of as a bar­ris­ter, led me to write a book about race and class in the pro­fes­sion, active­ly cam­paign for more diver­si­ty and reg­u­lar­ly men­tor aspir­ing bar­ris­ters from ‘non-tra­di­tion­al’ back­grounds.

“The great thing about social media is it’s so easy to use, par­tic­u­lar­ly for young peo­ple. I want the mes­sage that the legal pro­fes­sion needs to be diverse to reach as many young peo­ple as pos­si­ble and social media real­ly helps those of us who are under­rep­re­sent­ed to be more vis­i­ble.

“I also think the legal con­tent on social media is great. Peo­ple share their arti­cles, blogs and videos, which helps edu­cate the pub­lic and demys­ti­fy the law. It has helped to mod­ernise the pro­fes­sion and make the law more acces­si­ble for every­one.”

Legal argument and legal issues are driving social conversation

Oth­er exam­ples of Twit­ter accounts aim­ing to deliv­er acces­si­bil­i­ty and legal analy­sis through social media and the law include The Good Law Project, found­ed by Joly­on Maugh­am QC. Its Twit­ter bio states, “We use the law for a bet­ter soci­ety.”

And with more than 400,000 fol­low­ers, ris­ing from 88,000 just two years ago, The Secret Bar­ris­ter is one of the first legal analy­sis accounts so many peo­ple now turn to. The mys­te­ri­ous fig­ure, who uses it to edu­cate on the state of the crim­i­nal legal jus­tice sys­tem and the impor­tance of legal aid, has since become a num­ber-one best­selling and award-win­ning author with a sec­ond book Fake Law.

The ben­e­fits of social media and the law are being felt more wide­ly, har­nessed by those in niche legal spe­cialisms, to pro­vide legal analy­sis and help or to deliv­er pro bono sup­port.

For exam­ple, solic­i­tor Pranav Bhan­ot found­ed TheWeddingLawyer.co.uk on Face­book and Insta­gram to run week­ly legal clin­ics with free guid­ance for cou­ples whose nup­tials were impact­ed by the pan­dem­ic. For the vast major­i­ty of cas­es, this pro bono work was enough to recov­er refunds, which Bhan­ot approx­i­mates as being worth around £2 mil­lion.

He says: “The Insta­gram Lives and Face­book Lives we do help cou­ples and sup­pli­ers to nav­i­gate the COVID-19 restric­tions. This has increased access to jus­tice, as the vast major­i­ty of cou­ples would not have been able to pay for legal advice to assist them dur­ing these times. Social media can be a great way to apply pres­sure for change.”